FivePoints Half-Marathon Approaching Fast

It is now less than a week before the FivePoints Half-Marathon here in Gainesville...and I'm unprepared, not having trained to that distance level in recent months.  That being said, I think I'll enter it anyway, walking part of the way if I have to.  I haven't run this distance since early March of last year...actually, I haven't even approached it since.  But I have been consistently running on a daily basis and feel that I could swing a run/walk combo for 13.1 miles.  Of course, I might just be able to run through the whole distance should I slow down my pace a bit...well, I'll just have to see how things develop on race day.

Since I resumed running in 2007 at age 50, I have run and completed a total of nine races of length 10K (6.2 miles) or longer.  One was a marathon and six were half-marathons.  That one marathon, the Ocala Marathon in 2011, convinced me that I was more suited for shorter races. As far as FivePoints is concerned, ever since that first FivePoints Half-Marathon in 2010 something has come up each year preventing me from running in it again.  This year it looks, at least right now, as if I'll get a shot at it...but as I said before, my main goal will be to just finish it!

Rain Bothersome, But Will Help Prevent Fires

Since 1998, I have entered the late wintertime with a certain amount of trepidation...in that year we in northern Florida had experienced a drought severe enough to spawn several devastating forest fires in early spring.  Almost all of Flagler county on the east coast between St. Augustine and Volusia County was affected, while huge sections of Volusia were in flames.  For a time, it looked as if a firestorm would sweep into Ormond Beach and burn down whole neighborhoods...but the heroic efforts of firefighters kept it at bay.  In Alachua County where I live, we had our own fires to worry about, the worst of them being on the outskirts of Waldo, about 15 miles northeast of us.  When the wind was blowing in the opposite direction, it wasn't bad.  But one night it shifted suddenly in our direction and it felt as if the fire were right upon us...with ashes falling from the sky.  The threat of immediate immolation may be scary, but ultimately the chief long-term danger I see in these fires is in their detrimental effect on people's breathing...especially for those already afflicted with respiratory disorders.

I can't pretend to be a prophet or even a competent weather/fire forecaster, but this year at least it looks as if we will be spared this fiery and smoky fate.  We have had so much rain in the last month that not only is it inconceivable that we'll have any of those fires later on, but also the ground in many places is turning into muddy mush.  Oh well, I'll accept the trade-off: I don't have to breathe any of it, at least...just avoid driving or stepping in it...

Just Finished Reading Goodkind's Faith of the Fallen

I have just reached the halfway point in Terry Goodkind's twelve-part Sword of Truth fantasy series, having just read book #6, titled Faith of the Fallen.  The regular protagonists Richard, Kahlan, and Zedd are still in there, struggling against their own nemesis, the Imperial Order.  But this book diverges from the previous five in that the author takes up much of the narrative arguing, through the characters, his ideas of libertarianism and his disapproval of government-sponsored programs and laws designed to aid the poor.  Under the Imperial Order, personal initiative and economic freedom are suppressed; those who work and produce are stigmatized and made to serve those unwilling to work.  I understood Goodkind's viewpoint on all this very early in the story without him needing to make it the overriding theme of the book.  Frankly, I dislike reading books where the author is obviously on a soapbox spouting his or her ideology...with those characters agreeing with his opinions uniformly displaying virtue and those on the "other side" being dishonest, lazy, and treacherous (and in Goodkind's writing, sadistic).  I rather like to believe that people of different philosophies and opinions should be respected and not have their characters impugned just because they are seen as being on the "other side".   Still, I managed to get through Faith of the Fallen and look forward to giving Terry Goodkind another chance with the next book in the series, the title of which I believe is The Pillars of Creation...

Sochi Olympics to Start Soon

I have a tendency to go channel surfing on my radio while driving.  One reason for this may be that I have a diversity of listening interests and like to see what's happening on different stations.  But sadly, the main reason I switch back and forth on the radio dial is that the programming is so poor nowadays on broadcast radio that I have to search around to find something worth listening to.  This morning I was toggling back and forth between two AM sports talk radio stations when I heard one of the hosts make a suggestion that I thought was worth adopting...although I can't for the life of me remember who made the suggestion or which station it was!  The idea was to balance out the Summer and Winter Olympics by moving to the latter indoor events currently belonging to the former.  So indoor (traditional) volleyball would then be in the Winter Olympics while beach volleyball would stay in the Summer.  Basketball, wrestling, gymnastics...even swimming and diving could move over as well. 

I think that a major problem with following the Winter Olympics right now is that it is very geographically skewed toward countries with snowy, northern climates, the Jamaican bobsledding team notwithstanding.  Moving sports to these games from the Summer might help stir up more worldwide interest with more countries participating.  On second thought, though, basketball might better be left in the Summer since most of the participating athletes (and coaches) have their own leagues to play in during the wintertime.  Still, many of the more minor indoor sports might fit better in the "other" Olympics we're about to experience...

The Sochi Winter Olympics officially begin tomorrow with the opening ceremonies, but some events have already begun today.  I will probably be watching a few of the sports, none of which I have ever even remotely engaged in myself, largely due to the fact that I have lived here in Florida since infancy.  Curiously, though, I have found myself entranced by the sport of curling, which is something like team shuffleboard on ice...with broomsticks.  I noticed that some of those sports talk jocks said they liked watching it, too...when they weren't bashing the shoddy provisions provided to the press corps at Sochi...

Looking at Today's NBA Standings

At about the 60% point in the regular season, it seems to me a good time to check out the National Basketball Association standings and see how things are going with various teams.  The first, glaring thing I see is the imbalance between the Eastern and Western conferences.  This is important since the eight teams with the best records in each conference will make the playoffs, an important mark of success for many franchises.  As per this morning's standings, the Western Conference Memphis Grizzlies currently stand on the outside of the playoff picture in ninth place in their conference with a 26-21 record.  But were they in the Eastern Conference, the Grizzlies would have the third best record; were they in that conference's Atlantic Division, they would actually be in first place!  Denver and Minnesota, both in the West, would also qualify for the playoffs if either of them were in the East. 

The expected leaders like Miami, Indiana, San Antonio, Oklahoma City, and the Los Angeles Clippers are continuing to perform well, each of these leading their respective divisions.  Teams exceeding expectations are Toronto (which leads the Atlantic Division), Washington, Portland, and Phoenix.  Houston is doing better than last year, too, but that was to be expected after their acquisition of Dwight Howard following his one season with the Los Angeles Lakers.  Speaking of the Lakers, they are a major disappointment this season with their star guards Kobe Bryant and Steve Nash long out of action due to injuries (Nash is back now, though).  They are a dismal 16-32 so far.  Chicago is also having to go through another long stretch without their talented-but-brittle star Derrick Rose, out with injury once again.  But they at least are gamely fighting on and stand to make the playoffs.  Other disappointments are Brooklyn (albeit in a playoff spot right now), New York, Milwaukee, Denver, and Utah.  Teams currently with playoff positions in the standings that I haven't yet mentioned are Atlanta, Charlotte, Dallas, and Golden State.

A lot can happen over the course of the remaining 32 to 34 games.  Injured players can return and make an impact (although with the Lakers it will be too late) and players currently active can suffer injuries.  At this point I see conference finals between Miami and Indiana in the East and between San Antonio and Oklahoma City in the West.  An Indiana/Oklahoma City final championship series seems the most probable, at least from where I'm standing.  And if that happens, I like Oklahoma City...

Worst Super Bowl?

I have read and heard people claim that the Super Bowl this past Sunday was one of the worst ever.  No doubt the main reason for this harsh judgment was the lopsided score, 43-8, by which Seattle drubbed Denver.  Other contributing factors may have been that the expected offensive fireworks of both Peyton Manning and Marshawn Lynch were pretty much squelched by stingy defenses, and Seattle's defense was especially tenacious as they put on an incredible clinic with their effective tackling.  Defensive struggles often make for perceived uninteresting games...although I personally don't see it that way.  Also, the folks who were pulling for Denver had to be crushed by the fact that, from the first play from scrimmage, their team acted as if they had forgotten how to handle a football. I'm sure many of these fans thought this was one of the worst Super Bowls ever.  I also think that viewers were spoiled by the exciting Super Bowl games that were played in the last few years...the last blowout had been after the 2002 season when Tampa Bay drubbed Oakland 48-21.  In fact, though, taken as a whole, many past Super Bowls have been typified by one team dominating the other...and fittingly enough, one of the teams "most dominated" has been the Denver Broncos.  As for my opinion on the subject, I liked to watch both the play on the field and the well-done halftime show featuring Bruno Mars (with a little help from the Red Hot Chili Peppers)... what I didn't care for about this year's Super Bowl was in another area...

The commercials during the Super Bowl, usually hyped for their imaginativeness and effect, were to me a pathetic, collective bunch of duds, some of which made no sense at all to me.  The car commercials in particular seemed to be especially weird and puzzling in a negative way, throwing in all sorts of extraneous nonsense...if you're trying to sell a car, then talk about the car! And the beer commercial where the "unsuspecting" dude ends up playing ping-pong with Arnold Schwarzenegger...you mean they actually PAID some advertising whiz who came up with that one?  Really?

Finished Reading Asimov's Pebble in the Sky

I just finished reading Pebble in the Sky, Isaac Asimov's final novel in his science fiction Empire trilogy.  The stories in this trilogy are connected with each other only in the context of the backdrop of Asimov's make-believe future of the growing galactic empire of Trantor.  The characters, stories, and locations are all completely different and are separated by vast spans of time, one book having no discernible bearing on any of the others.  Pebble in the Sky takes place on Earth, with a visiting archaeologist from the Sirius system and an accidental time traveler from "our" contemporary Earth's Chicago making up a pair of highly unlikely protagonists.  The Earth's population has dwindled to number in the millions and residual radiation from a devastating nuclear war in eons past (i.e. our time) has polluted the planet.  The other star systems in the galactic empire treat Earthlings as pariahs and they respond in kind with a surly, rebellious demeanor.  Throw in a scientist's discovery of a formula for intelligence enhancement, a society in which people are put to death at age 60,  and an insidious plot against the rest of the galaxy, and you pretty much have the basic ingredients of this story.  It was more enjoyable to read than the previous two Empire novels, but I felt that Asimov threw too many gimmicks into his tale. Still, it's always fun to read others' speculations about our future.

There, I've read Asimov's Empire series again.  Now to continue with his much better and more cohesive Foundation series...which consists of five basic books, two prequels, and at least three posthumous spinoffs written by other authors...       

Super Bowl This Evening

Well, later on today it will be decided: the National Football League Championship of the 2013 season.  I suppose that, after it's over, I can finally get along with regarding myself as being in 2014!  This edition of the Super Bowl, taking place in East Rutherford, New Jersey, pits the Seattle Seahawks of the NFC against the Denver Broncos of the AFC.  Both teams are what I would term "complete" teams with solid offenses and defenses...along with some star players.  We all know about the great Peyton Manning for Denver, with his spectacular record-breaking regular season.  His cast of receivers has also become well-known.  Seattle's biggest star is their running back Marshawn Lynch...and here is where we see the strategic scenario developing for the game.  Seattle relies on their running game for three purposes: open up the passing game for their able young quarterback Russell Wilson, keep the potent and explosive Denver offense off the field, and last but certainly not least, score a lot of points for themselves!  On the other "side" of these teams, the Bronco defense has had difficulties stopping their opponents at times, but Seattle's has been truly remarkable with the cohesive, unselfish manner in which they work together as a unit to crush drive after drive.  I attribute most of their success to their head coach Pete Carroll, who has made this group believe and rally around him.  Sure, we hear from time to time about their star cornerback Richard Sherman and his showboating remarks reminiscent  of pro wrestler rantings, but on the field he blends well with his teammates.  Still, Seattle will have their hands full with the Manning-directed offense, and will have trouble rushing the quarterback if they can't stop the Broncos' effective rushing attack headed by Knoshon Moreno.  Oh, I haven't mentioned Denver's coach John Fox, another outstanding leader.

I am picking Seattle to slip by Denver in a close game and, like many of the other predictions I have heard on radio and TV, I think it will be in the "twenties" for both sides: Seattle 27, Denver 23.  I'll also be rooting strongly for the Seahawks...

Education for Life 5K Race at Westside Park

Earlier this morning Rebecca and I ran a local 5K (3.1 miles) race here in Gainesville.  It was called the Education for Life 5K.  I believe this was its fourth running.  There must have been about 200 runners, and for a change most of them seemed to be in the younger age categories.  The course, which began and ended behind Westside Park on NW 31st Drive, also involved running along NW 8th Avenue, cutting through Loblolly Woods Park, and returning down hilly NW 16th Avenue (where Marty Liquori used to train).   The hilliness and slopes of the course weren't the only challenges: although the race-time temperature was a pleasant 60 degrees, the humidity was a bit overbearing, being over 90%.  I think that factor bothered me more than anything.  This was Rebecca's first 5K race and she did a great job, especially considering the terrain and humidity.  Way to go!  For my part, I finished it at 25:53...pretty much maintaining my usual pace.  While running with my daughter was fun, I was also gratified to finally have entered and finished a race after so many months of skipping other opportunities (some beyond my control, to be fair). 

I felt that the atmosphere at this event was very positive, and volunteers were spread along the course shouting encouragement and cheering us on.  There was even a pre-race group stretching/warm-up session. They also were good at providing refreshment after the race, and not only handed out awards to the age/gender category winners, but also randomly drew for some prizes from the at-large pool of runners.  I'd like to try this race out next year.  Here is the event's website. 

And here are some pictures I took...

My January 2014 Running Report

A year ago in January, I ran in the Ocala Half-Marathon and amassed 200 miles for the month while running every day.  This year in January I only ran about half that amount, 102.08 miles to be exact. However, I somehow did manage to run on every day of the month.  And although I skipped the Ocala Half-Marathon this year and didn't run any races this month, I am going to run tomorrow's Education for Life 5K event with my daughter tomorrow morning, taking place here in Gainesville at Westside Park.  My longest single run in January was relatively short: 4.54 miles. 

I'm still entertaining thoughts of entering Gainesville's FivePoints Half-Marathon for February 16.  I'm not in the same running shape, though, that I was a year ago.  But to just cover the distance without concerning myself about my time would still be a pretty nifty accomplishment for me...and I love the course, which goes through much of Gainesville...

Isaac Asimov's Novel The Currents of Space

As I wrote a couple of days ago, I'm currently in the processing of re-reading Isaac Asimov's Empire trilogy of novels.  I just finished the second one, titled The Currents of Space.  In it, Asimov speculates that it will be discovered that in deep space, "currents" exist that contain relatively large amounts of various elements.  Also, when a star system passes through a space current possessing a large amount of carbon, the star becomes a prime candidate for a nova explosion.  I don't think, however, that this is where we are nowadays with our understanding of novas...but for this story at least, we just have to play along with our good author's notions on the subject.  This is important because in the universe of Asimov's fictional future thousands of years from now, a specialist in the field of space currents has a dire warning to convey to the leaders of an inhabited planetary system...but unfortunately someone wipes his memory away (using something called a "psychic probe") before he can get his message across.  The story develops as he gradually recovers his memory while he and two companions are pursued by two conflicting sides: the locally dominant Sarks and the galactic empire of Trantor.  There is an important subplot to this tale, in which the planet of Florina is under Sark domination and whose inhabitants, of a lighter skin pigmentation than other people in general, are subjugated and suffer racial discrimination.  This is a not-so-oblique analogy to what was going on in America (especially in the South) with its racial segregation and prejudice of the mid-twentieth century, when The Currents of Space was written.  To leave no doubts in the minds of the reader about what he is doing, Asimov then has the oppressed people group forced to grow kyrt, which supposedly is a variant of cotton that grows better on that planet than anywhere else in the galaxy.  I guess back then this exposition against racial bigotry would have been considered a bold move on the author's part, but it seems somewhat patronizing and redundant to me now. 

The Empire series contains stories told with the backdrop of the growing Trantor Empire, each one transpiring a substantial time span after the previous.  With The Currents of Space, the Empire is strong but only covering about half our galaxy.  The third and final book of this series, titled Pebble in the Sky, has Trantor dominant throughout...

Leon: A Cold and Stormy Character

For nearly a week already, the weather forecasts have been pointing to today as being a rather nasty day.  Initially it was projected to dip down into the twenties.  Then it looked as if we were in for an ice storm with freezing rain, icy roads and even a potential for the first appreciable snowfall here in Gainesville since December of 1989.  But as the day grew close, the forecast backed off about the severity of the impending storm, which I was astonished yesterday to discover possesses a name: Winter Storm Leon.

I had long thought that putting a name to something automatically makes it more memorable, and some of these wintertime frontal storms can cause at least as much destruction and injury as a hurricane strike.  Apparently, somebody in the weather bureau agrees with me; I wonder how long this naming of winter storms has been going on.  I don't recall hearing anyone refer to other such storm systems by a name, but Leon does start with the letter "L": doesn't this imply that there already have been winter storms A through K? And has this already been going on previous to this year?  My next proposal will be for them to start naming summertime heat waves!

In spite of temperatures giving us a break with Leon (at least here in Gainesville), we are still stuck in very rainy circumstances here and cold (for us)...it isn't supposed to get warmer than the low forties all day long.  Looks like I won't be running outside today!

Just Finished Reading (Again) Asimov's The Stars, Like Dust

The late Isaac Asimov was one of those writers who created his own fictional "universe".  It is common knowledge that, within the fantasy genre of fiction, authors typically reshape the planet with completely different maps of imaginary continents, along with their topography and political divisions.  As a matter of fact, one of the first things I do when I pick up the beginning book in a fantasy series is to look at the map of the area.  Sometimes, as with authors like J.R.R. Tolkien and George R.R. Martin of Lord of the Rings and A Song of Ice and Fire, respectively, these maps are very intricate and well thought out.  And then there are other maps, like those of Terry Goodkind in his Sword of Truth series, which are very sketchy and incomplete.  But Asimov was a science fiction writer, not confined to one made-up world...instead,  his created "world" spans the future history of our galaxy; his "map" is of time rather than geography.  This "Asimov Universe" wasn't created beforehand, but rather evolved over the span of decades as he wrote many different novels and short stories that fit together to form a cohesive picture of his vision of the future as to how it pertains to humanity.  These stories can roughly be grouped into three time eras: the Robot Era, the Empire Era, and the Foundation Era.  With the robot tales, you can read each story without too much concern about keeping "in order", but with Empire and Foundation (especially the latter) it's a pretty good idea to go from beginning to end. 

I just reread the first of Asimov's three Empire novels, titled The Stars, Like Dust.  It is set in our galaxy, with many worlds already having been settled for thousands of years, after the crucial ability to be able to "jump" through space/time had been acquired that made travel to the stars beyond our Solar System feasible (in Star Trek this advance is called the "space warp"). I feel a little uncomfortable when I speak of the future as past "history", but this apparent paradox works anyway.  The idea of future history becomes of paramount importance for the Foundation series, which is completely based on it.  But before Foundation could take place, a galaxy-wide united empire with a centralized capital city and government had to be established, and The Stars, Like Dust lays out the preliminary setting for the beginnings of this process by depicting a rebellion against a minor empire in a localized group of star systems.  The story involves an executed rebel landowner's son who finds himself sucked into a web of intrigue involving  rebellion, murder, romance, and revenge.  How it all ends is...well, to my thinking it ends pretty inconclusively, making me wonder why I invested my time in reading it a second time, much less the first!  I wasn't too happy with Asimov making such major efforts to scientifically describe the various technological innovations in his story as well as giving short lectures on chemistry and physics...I think he could have accomplished what he wanted to do without sounding so pedantic (I've had the same problem with Michael Crichton in his novels).  But it is the story's young protagonist, Biron Farrill, who bothered me the most with his childish emotional reactions to just about everything...only to reveal at the end that it was all just a ploy on his part to manipulate the behaviors of others to reach the higher objectives of discovering who betrayed his father and where the center of rebellion against the Tyrann empire was located.    But all in all, I'm glad I read it (and that it's over)...and am about to embark on a rereading of the (better) second book in the Empire series, titled The Currents of Space...

Referring to Super Bowls

This seems like an opportune time to bring up something that my vague memory tells me I already did on this blog in some form or another a few years ago.  And that is the ridiculous way that Super Bowls are designated. 

It's pretentious enough that those in the National Football League leadership chose to implement their own system of counting years starting with Super Bowl "1" (this Sunday it will be Super Bowl "48"), but to aggravate things even more they have insisted on using Roman numerals instead of the Arabic ones we are accustomed to.  So I can say "Super Bowl 48", but I write "Super Bowl XLVIII".  In spite of the NFL's efforts to replace the old B.C./A.D. system (or BCE/CE if you prefer) of marking the years with "BSB/ASB" (which kind of implies that somebody sees football is being akin to a religion, doesn't it), nobody I know actually refers to old Super Bowl games this way.  Instead, they have a different problem when they refer to the calendar year...

For example, Super Bowl XL (or "40") took  place early in 2006 to determine the 2005 NFL championship in which Pittsburgh handled Seattle, 21-10.  But someone who refers to this game by saying "the 2005 Super Bowl" may be mistaken as referring to the game played in earlier in 2005 to determine the 2004 champion (which was New England).  On the other hand, using the actual year that the game was played in could be mistaken for the 2006 season...the Super Bowl championship which Indianapolis won.  As far as I can tell, the most common way to refer to a Super Bowl year is to use the season's designation.  So this year's Super Bowl between Seattle and Denver, although played in 2014, will be generally known as the "2013 Super Bowl".  Got all that? Good, because I may need you to tell me what I just said!

I discovered something else relating to past Super Bowls that surprised me.  For the first four years of this game, for the 1966-69 seasons, the National Football League and the American Football League were completely separate entities who sent their champions to face off for bragging rights in an unofficial, essentially exhibition contest...never mind that it was called "Super Bowl".  It wasn't until the 1970 season, when the NFL and AFL officially merged to form the NFL with National and American Conferences that the Super Bowl became the NFL championship game starting with the fifth game of the series.  So in spite of the fact that the New York Jets upset the Baltimore Colts 16-7 in that famous "Super Bowl III" after the 1968 season, the NFL champion for that year was...the Baltimore Colts! The following year Kansas City in turn upset Minnesota 23-7 in their Super Bowl.  As it turns out, that season was Minnesota's turn to be NFL champions...in fact it has been their only NFL championship! Yet both the Jets and Chiefs have won a Super Bowl...although neither has ever officially won an NFL championship!                                    

Just Finished Reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

I just finished reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, the first volume of the late Swedish writer Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy.  As you might suspect, the setting of this story is Sweden...and the trilogy's title refers to the name of the story's magazine that Mikael Blomvist, one of the two main protagonists, runs.  In this first story, he finds himself found guilty in the courts for defaming a seedy wealthy industrialist and readies himself for a short jail term.  He then finds his future plans radically altered by another aging industrialist, named Henrik Vanger, when the latter hires him to investigate the 1966 disappearance and presumed murder of his daughter Harriet.  Blomvist is chosen for this job largely because of the extensive background check performed for Vanger by Lisbeth Salander, an antisocial prodigy with a flair for getting in trouble with the authorities...and the other main protagonist.  The novel involves several other characters, including several "suspects' in the Vanger family...but Blomvist and Salander are the standouts.  The story eventually has them meeting up with each other and becoming a formidable investigatory team, eventually solving the Harriet Vanger affair...and then going further with other matters.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is one of the best written thrillers I've come across in recent memory...and I've gone through quite a few lately.  The protagonists are very likeable and unforgettable, especially the enigmatic Salander.  I strongly recommend it to anyone who is into the mystery genre of fiction.  It was also recently made into a movie...featuring among others the British actor Daniel Craig, performing between James Bond roles.  Perhaps you've already seen it; I haven't yet, but since it's on Netflix I'll probably watch it now that I've read the book.  And I will most definitely be reading the next in the trilogy, titled The Girl Who Played with Fire...

Campaigns for Local March Election Underway

Late yesterday afternoon I was driving here in Gainesville along NW 43rd Street, northbound.  As I approached the 16th Boulevard intersection I saw several people smiling, waving at the passing cars, and holding up signs touting the candidacy of Annie Orlando for city commission.  I thought oh no, here we go again.  March local elections.

It never fails to amaze me that, with the already pathetically low voter turnout we have in this supposedly democracy-loving country of ours, my home town of Gainesville regularly holds its commission elections in March...when voter turnout is almost certain to be around a quarter of total registered voters or less.  This gives candidates with more extreme views and a more hardline, committed following of a relatively small number of voters the opportunity to sneak into elected office when a November election with its higher (but still too low) turnout would more likely prevent this from happening.  We have three races for our local government body that will be voted for on March 11...one at-large commission seat that will represent the whole city of Gainesville and two district seats that will represent certain sections. 

Aside from the fact that Annie Orlando is a Democratic Party candidate who seems to have establishment support for the at-large seat, and the Democrats usually win city-wide elections here in Gainesville, the alliterative, geographical, pop musical, and American historical nature of her name will probably garner a few extra votes as well.  The name Annie Orlando has that sonorous, alliterative ring to it, the Joe-Montana-like geographical glamour, the Tony-Orlando-and-Dawn pop musical allure (for those old fogies among us), and, last of all, the Annie Oakley American western history appeal...although that one is a tad more obscure than the others. 

I don't know which candidates I'll be voting for, but at least I'll find out more about who's running in the next few weeks and go to my precinct and cast my ballot on March 11.  I take my this civic responsibility of voting seriously and haven't missed an election in more than thirty years.  Annie, your name has pizazz but don't count on my vote unless I discover there's more substance behind it...

Finished Reading Michael Connelly's The Lincoln Lawyer

I recently finished reading my first Michael Connelly novel, which I had borrowed from my local public library.  Always a little unsure when I begin a new author, I was encouraged when I stepped up to the check-out counter and the attendant began praising my selection, titled The Lincoln Lawyer.  Later I found out that many others also liked this novel, with some claiming that it ranks as one of the best of Connelly's works.  It was not only his first foray into writing a story about law, but was also adapted into a film...about which I knew nothing. 

The Lincoln Lawyer is told in the first person by young hotshot (and very cynical) Los Angeles defense attorney Mickey Haller.  He definitely has his own philosophy about the legal profession that leaves little room to think about lofty concepts like principles and justice.  Still, as the story develops, something interesting happens: he begins to feel the pangs of a conscience and sets out to right what he considers wrongs that he has done...unintentional wrongs, but wrongs nonetheless. 

The story involves the defense of a spoiled and irresponsible rich young man, backed by his rich family, who is charged with aggravated assault and attempted murder of a young woman.  The defense investigation, as do typical fictional investigations, rankles some people and causes some severe responses.  Ultimately, the trial takes place under very conflicted circumstances for Haller.  The author kept me as a reader interested and in suspense, wondering both who was truly guilty and how the protagonist would be able to get himself extracted from the dilemma in which he had become trapped.  But the biggest impact this story had for me was its probing into the thoughts of opposing lawyers as they relate to presenting their sides of a case to a jury.

When I served as a juror a few months ago, I got the feeling that the lawyers on both sides were manipulating the jury with behavior that was designed to play on our emotions instead of providing us with the evidence and sufficient testimony we needed to arrive at an appropriate verdict.  Connelly's depiction of how trials are conducted did little to change my opinion...it only affirmed it. Both sides act on the surface with an air of deference and respect to those serving jury duty, but actually hold them in low regard. 

I liked The Lincoln Lawyer and will definitely seek out more of Michael Connelly's works.  As it turns out, he was born the same year I was, grew up and went to school in South Florida in the same county as me, just a few miles away, and now resides here in Gainesville.  Those coincidences are interesting...and admittedly a little creepy as well...

Mid-Life Medical Field Career Change Options

Yesterday I paid a visit to Santa Fe College here in Gainesville as a part of that institution's outreach to people 50+ years old who may be contemplating mid-life career changes or are possibly looking for something interesting and productive to do after retirement.  The focus was on careers in the medical field for which Santa Fe offered programs, such as nursing, respiratory care, nuclear medicine technology, cardiovascular technology, dental hygiene, and radiography.  I am interested in some of these, especially cardiovascular technology, nuclear medicine technology, and radiography.  These are areas of professional growth that will only be in higher demand as the years pass and the "baby boomers" enter a period in their lives of more prevalent medical care...along with the advances in technology to diagnose and treat them...and with a corresponding increased need for those trained to handed those new technologies. 

My father retired in 1982, at age 56.  He lived another 31 years, which although making  up a pretty decent life span at 87 years, also was marked, after retirement, by a retreat from the world and an ever-increasingly reclusive life within the walls of his house.  I do not ever want to be like that, even though I am reclusive by nature myself.  But I do recognize that I am a human being, and being as such, part of what I am necessitates me being an active, participating part of society, as difficult and painful doing that can be at times.  Continuing after retirement with some meaningful employment that utilizes my God-given abilities is a good way to continue this social involvement.

The academic advisor, Scott Fortnoy, guided those of us attending the workshop/tour around the various classrooms of their programs, pointing out what the jobs demanded from employees as well as important aspects like pay, hours, available of jobs, and the prospects for their growth.  He did a great job with his presentation, and I came away from the experience even more interested in employment in the field of medical technology.  The programs I am interested in are two-year degree programs, and may not be practical for me to pursue until I actually retire from my current job...which may not be until 2017 or even later.  I'll have to further investigate my options, though, and Scott made it clear to us that his office is open for us to visit and get answers to our questions.  I think I'll take him up on that...

Changing NFL Extra Point Rules

The current National Football League commissioner Roger Goodell has just come out suggesting that the extra point after touchdowns is so nearly automatic that it should be eliminated and teams just be given seven points after a touchdown...with an option to pursue an eighth point with what we now call a two-point conversion.  If that play is unsuccessful, a further point would be deducted and the scoring team would get only six points for all their trouble.  I don't like that idea: no one deducts points in a game in any sport unless it is because a scoring play has been reviewed and overturned.  Instead, in my opinion, they  should keep the system basically the same as it presently is, with the only difference being that an extra point attempt would take place on the twenty-yard-line (as the line of scrimmage from where the ball is hiked to the placeholder, making the kick essentially 36-37 yards long)...still probable but certainly not a shoo-in. Also, successfully kicking extra points, even from the current close range of today, is more problematic in college football and very "up in the air" on the high school level.  Placekickers should keep their important role on the team and in the sport: my suggestion would make them even more a deserved focus of attention.

I remember the times back in the early 1970's when NFL teams that had accurate long-distance kickers could consistently get themselves into field goal range by just getting into the opposing team's territory.  My Miami Dolphins racked up a lot of points that way by running a ball-control offense, getting a few first downs to the point where they had gotten a little bit past midfield, and then sending in Garo Yepremian to boot another long three-pointer.  In reaction to the ever-increasing ease of scoring field goals, the NFL rules were changed and the goal posts were moved from the goal line to the back of the end zone.  My suggestion about moving the extra point attempt back to the 20-yard line is in keeping with this sort of change and doesn't dramatically change the nature of the game, as Commissioner Goodell's proposal would...

Broadening (and Diluting) the Meaning of Addiction

The other night...I mean LATE night, while I was at work, I tuned in to the Coast-to-Coast AM radio talk show hosted by George Noory.  He had as a guest the famous science fiction writer David Brin.  Brin was in the middle of discussing the nature of addiction, and was about to state what he believed to be America's greatest addiction...but Noory quickly interrupted and shrewdly broke to several advertisements while keeping the listening audience (the ones who were still awake, that is) waiting in anticipation.  When Brin finally got back to the topic, he laid it out bluntly: in his opinion, the greatest addiction in our country is "self-righteous indignation".  While agreeing with Mr. Brin that this is indeed a problem in the United States, I have a couple of beefs about his statement.  For one, self-righteous indignation is something affecting humanity as a whole, not just one particular country or culture.  Also, it is timeless: just look the Bible, which is full of people who get themselves in a self-righteous huff about others (and usually end up rebuked for it).  But beyond the common assertion I hear that Americans are collectively guilty of things about which other people in the world are virtuous, the very appellation of "addiction" that Brin uses is erroneous.  It would be better to term this phenomenon as a "thinking error", "attitude problem", or "character flaw" instead of the emotionally charged word "addiction".  On the other hand, David Brin may just be following a common trend, which involves broadening the meaning of a heretofore precisely defined word to the point that it essentially becomes meaningless.  Hence we get a television series titled My Strange Addiction that groups compulsive behaviors like sleeping with a blow dryer or eating toilet paper, along with eccentric choices like living around a bunch of hairless rats, all under the umbrella designation of "addiction".  But there's more...it's becoming more acceptable to describe any kind of attachment to anything or any activity that one has a special fondness toward as an addiction.  What ever became of the narrower concept of addiction as being deeply dependent on an ingested chemical substance like nicotine, alcohol, heroin, and the like?

That having been said, I appreciate David Brin for at least bringing up self-righteous indignation as a societal problem.  I think too many folks resort to it too quickly when dealing with opinions or behavior that they see in others and with which they differ instead of trying to put themselves in the other person's position.  And why not? Look at the professionals in the opinion media and how they go about with their pious posturing, regardless of their positions on the issues, conservative or liberal.  And don't get me started with Nancy Grace.  You know, those people make me so-o-o self-righteously indignant!