Heat Shine, Lakers in Doubt for Playoffs

At the beginning of this year's edition of the National Basketball Association season, I was fully prepared to sit back and relax, enjoying while two teams I had formerly disliked, the Miami Heat and the Los Angeles Lakers, made easy runs through the regular season and then breezed through the playoffs, with the expected culmination being an unforgettable championship series against each other.  Uh, well, something else instead happened.

The Miami Heat, a "super" team composed of great players like Lebron James, Dwyane Wade, Ray Allen, and Chris Bosh, did indeed fly through their regular season and will finish with the league's best record.  They also enjoyed a phenomenal 27-game winning streak at one point.  Being the NBA's defending champion, other franchises sought out ways to compose their own unstoppable "super teams", chief among them the Lakers.  During the off-season they signed my favorite player, Steve Nash, from the Phoenix Suns as well as Dwight Howard, who left the Orlando Magic.  With standouts like Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol, winning the Western Conference seemed like a sure bet.  But a combination of injuries that kept circulating through the team and poor coordination between the superstars (especially with Howard) caused them to falter badly in the first half of the season.  To their credit, they rebounded and are actually at this writing in a position to inch into the playoffs as a conference eighth (and last) seed.  But Nash is still out with another injury, another starter Metta World Peace is out for the season injured, and, dammit, now it looks as if Bryant is out.  Unbelievable.  Well, if after all this they still make the playoffs, that will be a minor miracle in itself.  But I don't expect them to go very far.

If the Los Angeles Lakers don't make it, there are still plenty of teams for me to root for.  The "sleeper" team that could win the conference title (but would still most likely to lose to Miami) is the very, very fast Denver Nuggets.  We'll just have to see, should be exciting to watch these playoffs...

Visit to Cedar Key

Yesterday Melissa and I drove out to Cedar Key (about 60 miles from our home), had dinner, and then walked around the place a bit around twilight.  The place we ate at was Tony's, which boasts of being a "world champion" something-or-other, but which I'm satisfied describing as a pleasant seafood restaurant.  The dining room was cramped and small, but the food was fresh, well-prepared, and delicious.  I recommend it to others.  Afterwards, we strolled around the fishing area overlooking the Gulf of Mexico, and then made our way, as the night fell, down the strip of restaurants composing this small town's "night life".  We stopped at a place (downstairs from a well-lit restaurant called "Steamers") for some ice cream, and I peered at the TV inside another (ignoring the live singer/guitarist there) at the close of the NCAA Final Four game between Louisville and Wichita State. Melissa, on the other hand, enjoyed the musical performance.

Other than have a seafood dinner there, we didn't have any special agenda for our visit other than just enjoying the ambiance and each other's company.  A very, very, pleasant experience.  Here are some sometimes blurred photos I took there...

NCAA Final Four Men's Hoops Start Tomorrow

Tomorrow the NCAA men's basketball tournament will feature the first Final Four round.  Heavily favored Louisville faces off against upstart Wichita State while, in a more evenly paired up contest, Michigan squares off against Syracuse.  I am rooting for Louisville to win it all, so although that game may not be all that close, it should be fun to watch the Cardinals, with their standout guards Russ Smith and Peyton Siva demonstrating why they will be the clear favorite to win the championship game on Monday.  As for their opponent (I know, Louisville has to first get by Wichita State, but...c'mon!), although I have no clear preference between Michigan and Syracuse, that game should prove to be close and exciting.  In any event, I like the Final Four field, even though the Florida Gators just missed out on it, and for the third year in a row...

Public Service Announcement About Stroke

There is a very compelling, stirring public service announcement on the radio about the dangers of stroke, and how it disproportionately affects the African-American population.  As a matter of fact, as the announcement reports, it affects this demographic group at twice the rate of the general population.  So there is a very legitimate concern here that needs addressing.  And the way the announcement was produced, with a speech-impaired stroke victim describing his plight, made a big impact on me.  Yes, this was one of the best-done PSAs I've heard.  But I have a qualm with one claim made on it.

The announcer, immediately following the stroke victim's words, stated that the odds were that he was black, since this affliction affects that group at twice the rate, as I have stated.  But wait, blacks are only 13% of the general population, so at even only half the stroke rate of the African-Americans, the "others" with strokes would still easily outnumber them.  So the odds WOULDN'T be that the stroke victim was black.  But the point that WAS validly being pressed was that, if you belong to this high-risk group, then you need to be especially careful about both getting medical screens to detect any stroke warning signs as well as engage in a more healthful lifestyle.  But then again, this applies to EVERYONE, not just one group with a higher prevalence of stroke...

Struggle with New Work Hours

I am about halfway through my fourth week at my new work shift, which has me essentially working (11pm-7:30 am) when I used to be in bed sleeping.  Now I get off from work, go home, and sleep for the late morning and early afternoon.  It doesn't feel right, with this change, but I didn't think it would...at least for a while.  All I can do right now is focus on seizing each moment as it comes and making deliberate choices that foster good habits of time management.  Two things I am doing:  (1) blocking out specific times for specific activities, and (2) making a daily "shopping list" of things to do, crossing out items as I accomplish them.  Still, I tend to find days going by without me achieving what I had planned.  It is a struggle right now, but the main thing is for me to press forward, have a positive attitude, and keep my focus.

Bohannon Refutes Ideological Guest

I was at work on my graveyard shift last night, which gave me some opportunities on late-night talk radio listening that I formerly wouldn't have availed myself of.  One show, Jim Bohannon, was on and he had as a guest a Republican anti-union businessman.  I mean, this dude was REALLY anti-union, above all else.  Bohannon, for his part, went along with his guest's rants, not necessarily agreeing with them...but I sensed that they both had a similar political philosophy during the interview.  Until something happened that brought me new-found respect for Mr. Bohannon.

The GOP losers in last year's elections have put out just about any reason they could as to why they lost...especially Mitt Romney to Barack Obama in the presidential contest.  Any reason, that is, except the obvious one: the American people rejected the Republicans' ideas in favor of the Democrats.  This show's guest was naturally also in denial.  He claimed that Obama won not just because they had a better "ground game" on election day.  The oh-so-evil labor unions were apparently intimidating voters to vote Democrat.  When Bohannon pressed him on this, he gave an example of a woman who was given a ride to the polling station by local union workers and given a sheet of paper describing how they thought she ought to vote.  After the election, this woman publicly came out and claimed to feel intimidated by the union's actions. So what, Bohannon posited: she could still vote any way she wanted after getting into the voting booth.  As a matter of fact, he continued, anyone who really felt pressured in a negative way like that would be more likely to vote AGAINST the prescribed ballot handed to them...and how would anyone really know for sure how they voted anyway.  The biased, union-hating guest said no, that didn't apply here...but couldn't refute Bohannon's argument.  In closing, Jim Bohannon laid out the closing kick to his argument.  How could this woman, who supposedly "felt" intimidated by imagined reprisals from the union if she voted wrong, then boldly go public in the media about it?  No answer from the guest.

From this point in the interview, it became apparent that this guest and Jim Bohannon had diverged.  Not in the sense of their similar general outlook, but rather in the sense that the latter was fair and reasonable about analyzing things while the former was completely ideology-driven.

Sadly, too many folks in the media don't practice the common-sense, decent type of fair, reasoned analysis of the news that typify Jim Bohannon's approach.  He truly does stand out alone in this respect, at least on the radio.  Find me someone else like this in this medium, I challenge you. I often disagree with Bohannon, and sometimes he is rude to callers.  But he does operate with a clear mind and doesn't seem a slave to an ideology.  How refreshing...

Florida Gators Lose in Elite Eight Round

The University of Florida men's basketball team, anxious to make the NCAA Tournament's Final Four after being eliminated in the "Elite Eight" round in each of the last two seasons, once again fell...this time to a surging Michigan team.  The Wolverines had mounted an improbable last minute comeback against top-seeded Kansas in the previous round and defeated them in overtime.  They obvious carried on their momentum to the game with the Gators.  Unfortunately, Florida didn't, missing shot after (easy) shot, repeatedly turning the ball over, failing to cover on defense, and falling behind quickly 13-0.  It was a blowout, with Michigan trouncing them by 20 points.  But still, I think the UF fans generally came away from this negative experience with a sense of finality: they really didn't deserve to be in the Final Four after all.  The previous two seasons had the Gators losing heartbreakers, leaving lingering "what if" scenarios in their distraught fans' imaginations.

The NCAA tournament began with 68 teams and is now down to four.  That means that 64 games have already been played, with 64 corresponding losers...disappointing ends to what in retrospect should be considered successful seasons by each of these teams.  Besides these were many, many more who felt that THEY deserved to be in the tournament but were slighted by the selection committee.  And three of the four top seeds in the tournament didn't make it to the Final Four either.

Sure, Florida and its fans, coaches, and players will feel a little down for a while.  But looking back, they should feel good about about extraordinarily well they did this year.  I wish those graduating Gators the best with their futures and for those staying on...there's always next year!

My March, 2013 Running Report

March, 2013 saw me continuing my running at a higher daily mileage average than in 2012, but also stepping it down a notch.  It didn't start out that way, though, when on the 3rd I completed the Orange Blossom Half-Marathon (in Tavares and Mount Dora, Florida) in 1:50:53.  That 13.1 mile run also represented my longest single run of the month.  All in all, though, I ran less, amassing a total for March of 157.09 miles.  Still, I managed to run at least a little on every day, extending my consecutive day running streak to 335 days. 

Part of my running cutback was due to my new work schedule, which has me working the graveyard shift and puts pressure on my other activities regarding how I can fit them into the day.  But even with that taken into account, I don't see myself training for any half-marathon race anytime soon...at the very earliest it would be early fall.  So I'm planning to go back to shorter runs, still planning to run daily (if possible) and keep my monthly running mileage at above 100.  Starting tomorrow!

Just Finished Reading David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas

Last year I was treated to some of the most intriguing previews to a movie that I have ever seen.  Cloud Atlas was depicted as a flurry of spectacular scenes and special effects, with a star-studded cast to boot.  It was a must-see, as far as I was concerned.  And then I read a couple of reviews and changed my mind.  It seemed that the movie was based on the same-titled novel by David Mitchell, and if you didn't read the book first...you'd probably find yourself completely lost watching the film.  Oh well, I thought, I guess I'd better first read the book!  And I did, just completing it.  I must say that I was impressed, now looking forward to seeing the movie version (the trailers now make sense to me).

Cloud Atlas is actually a series of six nested novellas, with all but the middle one interrupted and completed in reverse order.  They are set in chronological order and span the early nineteenth century to a time hundreds of years in the future.  Each tale is complete unto itself, but at the same time has connections with the others.  There is a very strong theme of reincarnation here, so you may or may not need to set aside some of your own beliefs in order to flow with the reading.  But the most interesting aspect of Cloud Atlas is the author's deft use of language in each story, usually told in the first person and in line with the literary usage and style of the time in question.  For example, in the first story The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing, Mitchell writes out the story in that era's predominantly literary language, something that made me frequently scurry to my dictionary.  As the stories advance in time, up to the present area, the narrative language becomes more colloquial and familiar until Cloud Atlas turns toward the future, at which point it's language once again becomes more obtuse.  The "final" tale, which actually takes up the middle section of the book, is written in a futuristic, greatly altered English ingeniously projected by Mitchell upon that speculative time.  A master work in language, I must say.   So, about the movie, then...

If part of the great appeal to me in Cloud Atlas was the narrative language, then how can the cinematic rendition keep that magic?  This is where the screenwriters, directors, actors,and  special effects people need to step in and try to match David Mitchell's vision with their own arts and skills.  I look forward to seeing how well they did!

Please read David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas.  It beats anything else I've read recently. 

Personal Blogs in Decline, Facebook (Scarily) Dominant

My wife is an avid Facebook user while I, on the other hand, not only didn't use it...I stopped my account.  She has a whopping number of "friends" on it and the instant communication is, at times, a little frightening.  For example, one day a couple of months ago, after my Ocala Half-Marathon performance, I was sitting in our dining room at my laptop while she was using our desktop a few feet away in the living room.  I decided to check out the on-line Ocala results and found, to my pleasant surprise, that I had finished quite well relative to the other race participants (78th out of 262 total runners, 7th out of 18 in my gender/age group) .  I casually told my wife these exact figures, to which she responding by asking me if I wouldn't mind her bragging on me with them on her Facebook site.  Sure, I said.  I had hardly said so, it seemed, before she began to report several congratulatory comments from her Facebook friends, and even more "likes". These people are really hooked in to this network...and why isn't that so surprising, with the smart phones they carry around with them, alerting them instantly to any change in status in their various e-mail and networking accounts?  In the meantime, hardly anyone reads this blog, and even those whose blogs I used to follow have abandoned theirs.  The amateur, personal blogs have been declining while the "pros" are still out there, doing quite well for themselves.

When I first set out on this blog nearly six years ago, I felt that I was doing something pretty bold, setting out my thoughts in public like this, available for anyone with Internet access to read.  But in that span relatively few people have taken the effort to read any of it, in spite of the fact that my articles, which cover many varied topics, could be reached via search engines.  Now, with my blog's name and URL change, they haven't been available through these engines.  So I am in a relatively isolated position here...especially in contrast to the Facebook users.

I see no reason to end this blog...and I don't want to get into Facebook.  Perhaps at a future date the good people at Google will adjust their search engines and once again allow users to archive older articles of mine that match their search topics.  But for me, this is all ultimately a moot point, for I am doing this primarily neither for networking nor providing information for others.  I am doing this as a personal discipline of writing.  And making my writings publicly available gives me a sense of accountability and causes me to be more careful in expressing myself in a manner that respects and interests any potential reader...

NCAA Tourney So Far

The buzz going around the college basketball world right now is the upstart Florida Gulf Coast College team, in only its second year as an NCAA Division I school, not only making it to the championship tournament but also winning its first two games and getting all the way to the "Sweet Sixteen".  I'm impressed as well, but now its time for them to graciously bow out as they face my Florida Gators in the next round this Friday night.  Not that I believe that will happen, though.  It will probably be a very hard-fought contest; nevertheless I see the Gators prevailing, if for no other reason than that their coach Billy Donovan will have laid out some very effective strategies for his players to stop the Eagles.  It will be an interesting game for me to watch: with my new schedule in place, it'll be smack dab in the middle of my "weekend"!

Elsewhere in the NCAA men's hoops tourney, things have been generally going well for my teams, with Florida, Louisville, and Miami advancing to this round.  North Carolina, though, fought gamely but lost out to Kansas, a very possible Gator opponent in the following round should they get by Florida Gulf Coast...

Blog Name, URL Changed

It is indeed sad to have to report this, but I had to change my blog's URL and title because a soft porn website, for whatever perverse reasons of theirs, decided to adopt the almost identical designations I had, which were legitimately based on my name. Jerks.  Still, it doesn't bother me too much as not very many people read this blog, anyway.  As a matter of fact, the change to what is essentially a deliberate chain of nonsensical, random syllables for my blog's title and URL is an opportunity for me to see just who around me is really taking the time to read my blog. 

But no way am I going to let anyone confuse my own personal blog with a soft porn site...

10th Anniversary of Special Theme Park Visit

Today is the tenth anniversary of a fun, diversionary trip to a theme park with my two children.  My wife was busy at the time, so I took the kids to Wild Adventures theme park on the outskirts of Valdosta, Georgia.  Will and Rebecca were both pretty much fearless with the thrill rides there, but I wasn't.  But I resolved to tackle all of them, no matter how daunting. 

So I rode scary coasters like Boomerang, Cheetah, Hangman, and Bugout.  I went on the straight-up-and-down exercise in terror known as Double Shot (Universal's Islands of Adventure has a larger, but smoother version in their Doctor Doom's Fear Fall ride).  And I partook of what scared me the most, looking up from ground level: Power Surge, a "circle" ride quite like no other, being tossed about and inverted in my seat far above the ground.  Oh, and let's not forget the gut-wrenching gravity torture machine, Pharoah's Fury, a boat-shaped ride that swung back and forth in ever-increasing swoops.  All of this I conquered on that day, a day in which I repeatedly faced my primordial fears and pressed on.  To others, this may sound a bit laughable...but it was a big deal to me.

After that trip, for about two or three years, I made a point of visiting theme parks to ride roller coasters and other thrill rides.  I had a great time with my children...but they were growing up and weren't as interested in the thrill ride experience as before.  And Melissa NEVER was.  So here I am, now, having gone for a few years since going on a thrill ride at a park.  The last time was in south Florida, in the city of Dania on a fantastic wooden rollercoaster appropriately called the Dania Beach Hurricane.  But I've heard this this great ride has been dismantled...so sad.

I don't know about the future for me and theme park thrill rides, and I only got out to a few parks in the Southeast.  Plus, I have to keep in mind that one negative drag on my enjoyment was the often inexcusably long time I had to spend waiting in line just for one ride.  Also, I tired of the long driving to and from the parks.  O.K., so I'm getting old and impatient.  Wait, I've always been impatient!

Late Night Shift and Weirdo Radio

I have been working at my graveyard shift for about a week and a half, and frankly, I seem to be adapting reasonably well to it.  The key to my success so far has been my ability to get home after work and quickly into bed and asleep...for a good, solid block of time.  I have been consistently waking up in mid-afternoon and forcing myself into directed, purposeful activity. The only real problem I have been experiencing so far is that, toward the end of my shift, I can feel a little strung out.  I do tend to take a short catnap, though, during my lunch break around 5 AM.   

With me being awake all night long, I am once again reacquainting myself with a certain peculiar late night talk show: Coast-to-Coast AM, which I call "Weirdo Radio".  I used to listen to it back in the 1990's when Art Bell hosted it.  Now, George Noory interviews the variety of guests and, while not as personable as Bell, still competently pulls it off.  Still, I'm more than a little taken aback at all of the conspiracy crap being pushed on it. I prefer shows on the paranormal, frankly.  I don't necessarily buy what's being said, but I somehow get good vibes listening to it!

NCAA March Madness Back

We've once again come to the time in the year when basketball couch potatoes like me follow the "madness" that is the NCAA basketball tournament.  Not to try to sound sexist, but I have focused my attention on the men's tourney and have discovered some teams that I plan to follow.  First of all is my hometown college team, the Florida Gators.  Then, a traditional favorite: the North Carolina Tarheels.  The University of Miami Hurricanes is another one.  But if I just went by the players and how much I enjoyed watching a team play, my hands-down favorite would be the Louisville Cardinals, with their incredible point guard Peyton Siva, one of those rare players who not only are committed to working with the coach and his vision for the team, but who also are talented and outstanding both on offense and defense.  With him, Louisville could well go the distance and win it all.  Fortunately for them, UF, NC, and Miami are placed in other regions and won't have to face them unless they make the Final Four (and the Gators and Hurricanes both stand a reasonable chance of doing so).  One of my dream scenarios is a Lousiville/Florida game!

The so-called "first round" began today with two games pitting the very worst, lowest seeded teams against each other.  One of them, Liberty, actually sported a losing record at 15-20!  I do wish they wouldn't call this the first round when it is just a preliminary round to whittle the bloated 68-team field down to a manageable 64.

The true first round (naturally misnamed the "second" round) begins this Thursday.  I can't wait...

Restaurant Odors and the Sense of Smell

Over the past few months, I have had three disquieting experiences in local restaurants.  Each of the three is part of a different national chain...either franchised out or directly run by the corporation, I don't know.  The food is good and so is the service.  And they all seem to be popular, with customers coming in filling up the "joints" and reacting with favor to their dining experience.  But in each of these places, the minute I walk in I detect a nasty underlying odor.  It is an odor of decay and dirtiness, and is in all likelihood due to one factor: old, smelly carpeting.

In a way, though, I can understand why a lot of customers don't pick up on this unpleasant stench.  At one of the places, my wife had to point this out to me before I noticed.  But once she had, I wondered to myself how I could have missed it before, it was so bad.  It's as if, as humans, we've suppressed our sense of smell so much that someone else has to tell us when something doesn't smell right!  In any event, once I was alerted, I began to pick up the same disgusting odor elsewhere.

Could it be that people in general are losing their sense of smell, or like me, have they trained themselves not to recognize unpleasant odors when they arise?  Maybe it's a bit of both, I suppose.  But I don't want to frequent any of these places until they fix their problem!

My Substitute 10K Run

Yesterday I had an opportunity to run a 10 kilometer race in nearby Tioga, Florida.  I had thought of doing this more or less at the last minute, but I had some reservations about spending the money to enter it.  With a tee shirt and medal (and "free" admission to the post-race party I didn't want to attend), it would have cost me $35.  Without all of the above, they would have let me run in it and get my results posted on the Web for $20.  After giving the matter a little thought, I decided to step out of my own front door and run my own 10K course without spending a penny.  I deliberately timed the start of my private run to coincide with that event's starting time, 4:30 pm. Like much of the "official" race, my run went up and down residential streets.  I finished my run in 50:51, a personal best even though I stopped several times to drink Gatorade and walk a bit.  After it was over, I compared my times to comparable 10K races and found that in almost all of them, I would have finished at least third in my age group.  So I came away from the experience with a sense of satisfaction.

I like the social aspect of people getting together with a common interest and expressing that interest.  With running, of course, this manifests in the form of public road races.  Naturally, it costs money to organize and hold them, and participants should pay their share.  In the last few months, I ran a 10K race and two half-marathons.  But I don't need public affirmation as to how good a runner I am.  And even though I stood on the victory podium at the last half-marathon and received a prize for finishing second in my age group, during the actual race I had no idea which groups any of the runners around me were in.  So the competition factor in these public races tends to get a little abstract, anyway.

There is also a "tourism" factor that makes running in certain races more attractive than others.  For example, Tavares, with much of the run skirting pretty Lake Dora, was an interesting experience while Tioga, a place with which I am pretty familiar, promised little in this area.

In April there is a fun 5K walk/run, in Jacksonville, that Melissa and I are going to be in.  Other than that, though, I don't see me entering any more public running races for a while.  Maybe in the fall, we'll see... 

New Pope Hullabaloo

The hardly democratic "election" of Jorge Mario Bergoglio to be the next pope is rubbing me the wrong way.  For one, I was watching CNN's coverage of the news and was dismayed to find them completely abandoning any appearance whatsoever of objectivity, with excessive praise, even to the point of fawning, being the order of business.  That there might be some serious, controversial issues concerning this man and his past actions in Argentina has been completely glossed over.  And of course, completely forget about Fox"News" being objective, either.  But even on MSNBC, only Rachel Maddow, from what I can gather, has made any attempt to bring up some problematic points about the new Roman Catholic pope.  Chris Matthews, for example, was almost downright giddy about this selection.

It is an established feature of Judeo/Christian/Islamic dogma (in general) that homosexuality is "bad" and those such named deserve either second-class citizenship (in the more "civilized" parts where these religions predominate), banishment, or (in the more savage zones) even death.  And those promoting these views will always tell you that it isn't them...it's God (or Yahweh or Allah) saying this stuff within their scriptures.  Which were written down, of course, by PEOPLE with their own prejudices and agendas to promote.  Sorry, but I'm not buying into that bigotry.  Still, the incoming pope only recently engaged in a large-scale media blitz to prevent Argentina's president from being able to pass through their legislature a law allowing same-sex marriage in that country.  In other words, he robustly involved the Roman Catholic Church in the politics on an issue that said church wanted to impose on EVERYONE.  He has also clearly stated that, anywhere in the world where Catholic politicians hold office, if any of these politicians don't vote according to the positions on issues that the Church deems important, then priests are entitled to withhold giving Communion to them as a punishment.  Talk about interference in the affairs of other countries!

So I am quite a bit cynical about all the phony hullabaloo being generated about this "humble" pope, who took on the name of a venerated Catholic saint with the obvious intention, as I see it, of deceiving popular opinion as to his true intentions...which border on megalomania.  At least until someone shows me otherwise, that's going to be how I see this edition of the papacy...

Writing at Archer Road Starbucks

As part of the new routine I'm trying to develop, I am stopping by the Gainesville Starbucks on Archer Road near SW 34th Street after doing my treadmill run at the gym I'm a member of...all just before going in to work my graveyard shift. This Starbucks, though, is always so crowded with customers glued to their seats for hours, staring at their laptops (or other customers), that I find myself forced to sit outside. Fortunately, this little shopping center, of which Starbucks is just one store, has a huge outdoor food-court-style seating area. So that's cool, I suppose...as long as it isn't raining, that is, for the court is only partially covered over.

Still, sitting outside brings me to the old days back in 2007 when I would sit outside a different Starbucks (which no longer exists) just before going in to work and compose my blog articles. Back then, though, it was the middle of the day and I didn't seem to have too many other projects on my plate to occupy my attention.

Nevertheless, I would like to be able to choose to sit inside every now and then. I don't think, though, that whether I'm inside or outside really has much bearing on what I write. Instead, it's the feeling that, in a relatively short time, I'm going to have to get up and report to my job. So this isn't exactly conducive to speculation and imagination, two ingredients that I like to make use of in my writing. Tonight is only the second time I've tried this on my new schedule, though, so I should give myself a fighting chance to make a success out of it...

Trying to Establish Late Evening Blog Writing

This blog entry may seem a little shallow,  but my main purpose in writing it is to establish a disciplined routine of writing during the hour before I report to work at 11 pm (this is my second night on the graveyard shift).  I already did a 2.6 mile treadmill run at my local gym and plan to make pre-work/pre-writing runs a routine as well.  So far, so good...

It may well work out that I could get to sleep about an hour or so after I get off from work in the morning, so by late afternoon I could be fully functioning.  Today I was able to accomplish this, but I also know that each day at the beginning is a struggle as I try to change my sleeping/waking patterns.  Tonight I hope to not be as drowsy as last night...and then the next night even more awake.  We'll see, and I'll also keep my eyes open to any new job assignments that come up offering better working hours (along with good days off). But I don't think there will be very many opportunities in the future that don't involve working during the wee hours of the morning when most normal, sane people are happily tucked away in bed sleeping and dreaming...