Just Finished Reading Sue Grafton's "I" is for Innocent

For a long time I have been a fan of mystery writer Sue Grafton's "alphabet" series of novels featuring Californian private detective Kinsey Millhone.  starting with "A" is for Alibi and proceeding down the alphabet. Grafton is approaching the end: I thinks she's gotten past "V" at last check.  And I haven't read most of them.  The problem, though, is that I have trouble remembering which books I've already read and which ones I haven't.  This is especially true with the titles at the head of the alphabet.  I checked out "I" is for Innocent because I thought it was an unfamiliar title...turns out I was right, so I proceeded to enjoy a fresh mystery story.  Grafton's heroine Millhone is a very compelling protagonist with whom I feel no difficulty establishing strong empathy...there are definitely some personality similarities here between her and me (I'm probably closer to where she's at than you know, even if you think that you know me).  This story I just finished was one of those whodunnit murder mysteries with various characters presented at stages as possible suspects.  The "innocent" angle concerns a man, David Barney,who received a not-guilty verdict after being accused of murdering his wife...a verdict that many around him believe was erroneous.  Now, much like what happened with O.J. Simpson in the mid-1990's, he is having to undergo a wrongful death civil lawsuit trial. The plaintiff is the victim's earlier husband...as well as Kinsey Millhone's client.  The story develops as doubts about her case against Barney keep piling up and others start to look awfully suspicious.  Grafton's story, looking back on it, is pretty complicated.  But she is masterful at telling it (always in the first person from Millhone's point of view) in such a way as not to overburden me, the reader, with information overload.

Now I just have to remember that I read Sue Grafton's "I" book.  I'm thinking, though, of going back to "A" and reading each book in order...even if I already read it before.  It certainly wouldn't be the first time I reread well-written fiction.  Besides, there is, from book to book, a development of Kinsey Millhone's character with changes in her personal life and relationships...changes that make more sense if they are read in chronological (i.e. "alphabetic") order...

Just Finished Reading Stephen King's Revival

I just finished reading Stephen King's latest novel, titled Revival.  Opening with a short excerpt from classic horror fiction writer H.P. Lovecraft, this book definitely goes down the same path he went in so many of his stories.  This, however, isn't so obvious at the beginning...Jamie Morton, a six-year old boy living in Maine (ah, another Stephen King novel set there) who just so happens to be my age, is in the first grade around the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis (I remember what I was doing then, too...although I wasn't aware of why we were led out of our South Florida classroom by our teacher one afternoon to line up crouched against the hallway wall with our heads down and our hands covering them).  A new young pastor, Charles Jacobs, has just started work at the family's church and strikes up a friendship with the boy...a friendship that will transform itself in the ensuing years into a curious relationship combining enmity and salvation.  Jacobs is also an amateur tinkerer in electricity, in fact an Edison-like genius in the field, and has discovered a "secret" form of it that has miraculous healing properties...as one of the Jamie's older brothers discovers when he loses his voice from an accident and is taken to him.  But is there a price to be paid for this kind of healing, and where does it lead?  Well, if you've been paying attention, you know that this novel has a lot in common with Lovecraft's horror stories, so you just might guess that there's something or someone "behind the door" and that this isn't going to remain a sentimental, nostalgic tale for very long.  Still, the full impact isn't realized until the end of the novel, an impact that can hit the reader with its force and brutality.  So I guess I'm saying that if you are faint of heart or tend to have nightmares after reading scary stories (and this eventually turns into a very, very scary story), then please avoid Revival.  Still, it is masterfully written and, to me, is one of King's best works...probably his best since his 11/22/63 story a few years ago.  But if you do happen to pick up a copy and start to read it, don't say I didn't warn you...

Ran at the Gym This Morning, Upcoming Races

This morning I went with Melissa to my local gym, which is Gainesville Health and Fitness (the facility at the 4800 block of Newberry Road).  It had been a while since I've gone there...all the way back to October 23rd last year, as a matter of fact.  But this morning, Melissa was going to one of the water aerobics classes there (the eight o'clock one) and I decided to come along and run on the treadmill while she worked out.  I was curious how I would handle running on the treadmill after avoiding it for so many weeks.  It was no problem finding one of the more preferable treadmills on the second floor: the University of Florida is still "off" for the holidays (but not for long) and many of the students who usually would be using the gym were still out of town.  Anyway, I set the machine at my usual 6.7 mph pace and started it up.  To my horror I felt it very difficult to keep up with it and could tell, after running for a little while, that it would be quite a chore to run much longer.  Could there be that much difference between the treadmill and running on the ground/road that a few weeks away from it would cause that effect?  Then it hit me: the incline setting was at "3"...once I lowered it I suddenly felt as if I were running downhill!  The rest of the run went flawlessly while I listened to music on my MP3 player.  I did have to stop after 7.5 miles, though...I ran out of time and didn't want to keep Melissa waiting!  My running for the day continues, though...so far I've amassed a total of 12 miles, with more to come...

The next race for me will be the Ocala Half-Marathon later this month on Sunday, the 25th.  Then in February, depending on how how things go for me and my running in the next few weeks, I'll either do the half-marathon or take a stab at the 26.2 mile marathon in the Five Points races here in Gainesville...

Just Finished Reading Robert Jordan's A Crown of Swords

A few days ago, I ranked the various fantasy series I have read over the years (or am still in process of reading).  Robert Jordan's extremely long The Wheel of Time series was my least favorite, not only because of its length (fourteen volumes), but also for the overly complicated story lines that have developed.  I simply cannot keep up with each character, always seemingly on a trip from one city to another for various arcane reasons...and the cities keep changing hands with their leaders.  I just finished his seventh book, titled A Crown of Swords, and the confusion continues unabated. However...

With The Wheel of Time, I am beginning to learn how to better like this series by not getting myself overwrought about trying to perform the near-impossible task of keeping abreast of everything going on.  Instead, I just sit back and enjoy how each character, with his or her special personality and outlook, experiences and reacts to the proceedings.  This ability for deeply developed characterization is, to me, Jordan's strong point with his writing.  I especially like following the character of Mat Cauthon, one of the main protagonist Rand al'Thor's best friends and someone who isn't caught up with how important he sees himself (unlike many of the other characters).  Since A Crown of Swords features him a lot, that contributed greatly to my enjoyment of the book.

There is a Wheel of Time Wikia on the Internet, but if you haven't yet completed the series, you are susceptible to plot spoilers should you frequent it.  That happened to me when I got on it and did a search on one of the characters...and then suddenly found out about her demise  in a later book and at whose hands...

Three Big College Football Bowl Games Today

There are three college football games that interest me on this New Year's Day, 2015.  One is the Birmingham Bowl featuring Florida against East Carolina.  The other two are obviously the championship playoff games: the Rose Bowl between Oregon and Florida State and the Sugar Bowl between Alabama and Ohio State.  The action begins with the Gators at 1 PM and continues on into the evening with the Sugar Bowl closing it.  I'm sure there are other games as well, but these three actually mean something (at least to me).  Not that I'm going to be sitting in front of the TV transfixed by football all day, mind you...I've got other things to do with my life as well today...

It would be sweet to see the Gators go out on a winning note and finish with a winning 7-5 record.  East Carolina has an incredibly explosive offense, though, and it should be interesting to see how they match up against Florida's good defense.  I'm finally done rooting against FSU this year, meaning that they'll probably lose this game against Oregon!  They just keep winning their games and extending their winning streak and the bigshot talking heads in the sports media keep degrading them and placing them below other teams.  I think their quarterback Jameis Winston has a professional's look about him when he stands behind the center before the snap and scans the defense...reminds me a bit of the Patriot's Tom Brady.  As for the Sugar Bowl game, I instinctively root against Nick Saban, the Alabama coach, anyway, and Ohio State's coach Urban Meyer is coaching the other side.  I'm siding with Meyer and his Buckeyes, largely out of appreciation for what he did when he was at Florida (two national championships)...

CORRECTION: OOOPS, the Birmingham Bowl is set for Saturday, not today...but except for that, the article stands...

My Personal December 2014 Running Report

In December I continued with more extensive running, amassing a total for the month of 315 miles.  My longest single run was the 13.1 miles I covered in the Starlight Half-Marathon in Palm Coast on the evening of December 20...half of it in total darkness (only aided by a flashlight).  Unlike the previous two months, I tended to be consistent from day to day with my daily running mileage, so my one-day high mileage, spread out over several runs, was only 14.4 miles.  I ran on every day of the month.

I feel that my endurance level has markedly improved over the past few months, and I had energy to spare at the end of the half-marathon race.  That's good news, for next month will be the time for the Ocala Half-Marathon on the 25th.  I'm not sure I'll be running in any other races in January, but I definitely want to return to the rolling hills south of Ocala's Paddock Mall for the third time in five years...

Personal Top Ten Favorite Songs of 2014

Well, another year has gone by and it's time for me to review my favorite songs of 2014.  Being an enthusiast for alternative rock music, it came as a very pleasant surprise a few months ago to discover that two local stations, Gainesville's WHHZ/100. 5 ("The Buzz") and Jacksonville's WXXJ/102.9 have changed their programming format to feature "my" kind of music.  Since then I've been accumulating a few personal favorites that they play periodically.  Most of these are current hits, but a few, like Florence + the Machine's Dog Days Are Over, have been around a few years.  But you'll notice that this song is still on my list of favorites from 2014.  Earlier this year I purchased Beck's latest CD Morning Phase and discovered a track, titled Blackbird Chain, which I regarded as my favorite song of 2014 for the first half of the year.  But when those two radio stations kicked in, a flood of other songs joined it on the "list".  Ultimately, it came down to five songs I liked the most...each of which has a distinctive sound, style and message from the others.  After giving it all due consideration, though, I have to pick the Foo Fighters' new hit Something From Nothing as my "song of the year" for 2014.  It reminds me a lot of the style of my favorite grunge band, Soundgarden, while at the same time gradually builds up in intensity and complexity much the same way that Led Zeppelin's Stairway to Heaven did.  But the other tunes on the list are great, too.

Here's my list of personal favorite songs of 2014, with the artist mentioned in brackets:

1 Something From Nothing..... [Foo Fighters]
2 Dog Days are Over..... [Florence + the Machine]
3 Take Me to Church...... [Hozier]
4 I Will Wait...... [Mumford and Sons]
5 Come With Me Now...... [The Kongos]
6 Dangerous..... [Big Data]
7 Train Wreck 1979...... [Death From Above 1979]
8 Come a Little Bit Closer..... [Cage the Elephant]
9 Blackbird Chain..... [Beck]
10 The Walker..... [Fitz and the Tantrums]

Narratives, Police, Michael Brown, Eric Garner

It's hard to contest the testimony of many African-American men who claim to be repeatedly profiled by the police because of the color of their skin...I tend to believe these accounts.  The problem with proving this is that, in the justice system, things are done on a case-by-case basis and each specific case can be depicted by law enforcement in some way to exonerate officers even when they do profile blacks.  Another contention is that police are more brutal and use more deadly force in their interactions with black suspects...once again when investigations follow the result is often a flood of mitigating evidence letting the officers off the hook (hence recent grand jury refusals to prosecute police).  But the police are there to protect people and have to go into areas when called to respond to crimes and complaints.  In such cases, the officer may be white and the suspect may be black,...that isn't profiling, the cop is just doing his or her job.  In the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson this past August, that is what happened when a response to a call about a convenience store robbery and the suspect's subsequent stroll down the center of a street led to a police-suspect confrontation that culminated in the suspect being shot down dead.  Many witnesses were there, and depending on which version you might choose to fit your own narrative about the police, Michael Brown was shot either while attacking or rushing the policeman or he had his hands up and was moving away when killed.  I have a couple of questions, though, for those subscribing to the two diametrically-opposed narratives about this tragic incident...

For those, like Al Sharpton, who have made this crime-response case a matter of race and Michael Brown some kind of civil rights hero, quick to insert this case into their narrative that blacks can't get a fair shake in the justice system,  I would like to ask why do this when the situation does not indicate profiling, but rather an officer doing his duty to protect the public from crime and criminals.  As for those who seem to think that the police are grand, unimpeachable  heroes themselves and subscribe to the narrative that they, like combat soldiers in occupied lands, are under continual attack and have to respond in self-defense, my response to this narrative is that yes, if the police see themselves like that, I can see how they would respond with larger than necessary force.  But they are NOT soldiers in enemy land.  This is America, and at last report, we're not a police state or occupied territory. I ask myself why is it so many times, with all of the arms training that the police are supposed to possess, that I keeping seeing reports of policemen gunning down suspects to death when they should have been perfectly capable of incapacitating them by shooting them in less vital areas?  There is another case recently of a boy playing with a harmless cap gun shot to death like this...

Lending more credence to the profiling narrative is the case of Eric Garner, a black man who was approached by a group of police in Staten Island, New York while standing unarmed in front of a shop on the sidewalk.  Accused of selling tax-free cigarettes, not exactly a felony, when he asked the police to leave him alone they jumped him, pulled him down to the ground by his neck and sat on his chest...he died soon thereafter of a heart attack.  This case tends to support another negative narrative about the police, which is that they tend to be more confrontational and treat civilians with more brutality when in groups than when alone.  That old video of the Rodney King beatings comes to mind. It seems that aggression begets more aggression.

We all have our own experiences dealing with the police.  For the most part, they have done well by me, although I believe I was treated unfairly in a couple of cases...one a speed trap situation and the other a setup by several police to ensnare drivers who didn't subscribe to their strict (and to me, extreme) interpretation of a recently-enacted state law about moving over a lane to accommodate roadside emergency vehicles.  But I realize, quite unlike a large segment of the population, that it pays to be polite and cooperative with them, even in situations where I feel persecuted.  There seems, in my opinion, to be a serious gulf between civilians and police, both in how civilians expect the police to act toward them and in how the police expect civilians to act toward them.  Both sides need a crash course in decorum, politeness, and restraint...on a mass scale.

I have seen few issues like this in which opinions are so polarized and impassioned.  Not being black myself, I am not free to agree or disagree with the claim of police profiling from personal experience.  But my personal concerns about the police are real, too.  Although I do appreciate their valor and the important role they play in protecting us, especially from criminals, at the same time I tend to be very wary of them, even when I'm around them in Starbucks (where they gather for the free coffee) and I need to oh-so slowly reach down into my pocket for something like a pen or cellphone...

At Least the Ravens and Seahawks Made the NFL Playoffs This Year

After the failure of the teams I usually root for in the National Football League (Miami, New York Giants, Tampa Bay, and Jacksonville) to make the playoffs this year, I was left with Seattle and Baltimore to cheer on.  Since the Seahawks had already made the playoffs and are playing for a good playoff position this weekend, this left the Ravens as the uncertain playoff possibility.  They had to beat Cleveland today, which they finally managed to do, coming from behind to win 20-10.  But the Ravens still depended on Kansas City beating San Diego, a game I watched this afternoon and which the Chiefs won 19-7.  So Baltimore is in as a wild-card team and Seattle, depending on how they do in their final regular season game, can run the range from home field throughout the playoffs to a wild card team playing an extra game, with all of them on the road.

As for the pitiful Dolphins, I predicted they would blow one of their last two games and finish another non-winning season at 8-8.  Sure enough, even playing at home against the cellar-dwelling Jets, Miami just couldn't hold on to a 24-14 lead and folded up (or choked, depending on what vocabulary you want to use), giving New York the last 23 points en route to a 37-24 drubbing.  Makes it awfully hard to want to follow a team lacking spirit like this year after year...

The News and Subjective Narratives

I've been a little remiss on this blog lately when it comes to commenting on the ongoing news stories.  Since I'm going to weigh in with my own opinion about each of them (but not today), most likely some of my readers will have a different point of view.  Some of the differences will be due to either my own ignorance regarding the objective facts or to that of the reader, but I imagine that most of the disagreement in analysis will come down to the differences in subjective narratives between us. So what exactly is a subjective narrative, anyway?

Before I get into subjective narratives, let's look at some of the ongoing news stories before us;

The police killing unarmed black people in Ferguson, Missouri and New York...and then getting exonerated by grand juries.

Sony hacked ostensibly for the current comedy film The Interview, apparently because it offended the North Korean leader.

The Democratic-controlled US Senate releases revealing documents about "enhanced" interrogation methods used on suspected terrorists.

The now-discredited story about rape at a University of Virginia fraternity.

Another fallen celebrity, this time Bill Cosby, and public reaction.

In each of the above examples, it is possible to take the "facts" revealed by the news outlets and selectively insert them into one's own narratives about an "umbrella" principle.

I have my own opinions and "narratives" about the above topics, and plan to lay them out in future blog entries.  The important thing to remember, though, is that as members of the public at-large, we are limited by the amount of accurate knowledge available to us concerning the above stories.  Instead, it is a much easier burden on our thinking to latch on to a narrative that we hear on TV or radio, or from a friend, co-worker, or family member.  As humans with a social nature built within us, it can be quite exhilarating to be united in a cause revolving around a narrative that tends to be passionate in its appeal and expression.  Sometimes, such narratives are justified when the underlying pertinent facts eventually come out.  But often, the opposite happens as well and there is something of a letdown, with many left with a "rush-to-judgment" feeling.  I'm not a news junkie who is glued to news sources and opinion pages.  Still, it's not difficult to come away with definite opinions about the stories before us.  And maybe, just maybe, some of these opinions of mine won't square with your own narratives.  A subjective narrative incorporates within it any "possible", even dubious, information that supports it while ignoring or dismissing any facts that would diminish or contradict it.  Let's see how this works regarding the current news. Stay tuned...

Gainesville's Tom Walker Memorial Half-Marathon Proves Elusive

After my adventure in Palm Coast's Starlight Half-Marathon this past Saturday, I was looking forward to another edition of Gainesville's Tom Walker Memorial Half-Marathon, which had been scheduled (on the Florida Track Club website) for January 1, 2015.  Usually this race had been held in November, and I ran it in 2010 and 2011.  I liked the fact that in this race (and unlike much of the Starlight race) it would be in the daylight and I would be able to see where I'm going...and the paved Hawthorne Trail on which it is run stretches for miles in the woods southeast of Gainesville, far away from any traffic.  Tonight I was planning to register for it online, but unfortunately this race was removed from the Florida Track Club calendar.  I saw elsewhere that it had been scheduled for January 15, 2015 (as well as another site that had it scheduled for October 25, two months ago)...but when it came to discovering any solid information about the race, all I got was a brief mention in the FTC December newsletter exhorting us to look forward to this race "in the fall"...implying, it seems, that for this year we can just forget about it.  That's sad...but I can still run on my own and train for the next half-marathon, which for me is the Ocala Half-Marathon, scheduled for Sunday, January 25...

Christmas Greetings and Movies

Merry Christmas to everyone!  Last night we sat, after returning home from the Christmas Eve service at our church, and watched one of Melissa's favorite Christmas movies, the funny and sweet Elf. As for my own favorite Christmas movie, it's The Polar Express and although there have been a few showings already on TV, I've only managed to get in a few glimpses so far this season.  But they usually keep showing it from time to time in the days following Christmas, so I'm sure that I'll get to watch it again all the way through at some time.  And of course, there is A Christmas Story, being shown repeatedly on two stations this year: TNT and TBS.  As well as gazillions of other Christmas movies on many channels...

There are the movies about Christmas, and there are the movies that are released on Christmas, not necessarily with any other connection to the holiday season.  This year I see two standouts: The Imitation Game and Unbroken.  The Imitation Game concerns the breaking of the German Enigma code during World War II with the crucial help of mathematician AlanTuring, played by Benedict Cumberbatch. Unbroken is a biographical account of American athlete and war hero Louis Zamperini, who after appearing in the Olympics endured brutal treatment as a prisoner of war under the Japanese following an ordeal of several weeks floating adrift in the Pacific after his plane was shot down, again during World War II.  I'd like to see both of these, especially The Imitation Game...

Ran Palm Coast's Starlight Half-Marathon Yesterday

Yesterday (Saturday) Melissa and I traveled eastward a few miles to Palm Coast to participate in our respective races...I ran the half-marathon and she walked the 5K event.  Anticipating a downtown setting with cheering onlookers, I was surprised by the race location, which was in an isolated area south of the main city by several miles.  Other than a movie theater and an adjacent Christmas park display (much like the duck pond at Gainesville's NFR Hospital), there were just open fields and many walkways...not exactly civilization as I was expecting it.  For the races, which were started five minutes apart, the website had originally stated that the half-marathon runners would go first, followed by the 5K five minutes later.  But the event organizers abruptly reversed the order before the race, causing a lot of confusion among the runner/walkers, including Melissa and me.  But the races got off all right in the end, and we were on our way...

The starting times were at 6 and 6:05 PM, and we were already cautioned to carry flashlights or headlights with us to light up the nighttime paths...which they warned had "spots" of darkness.  That had to be the understatement of the century, for fully half of my half-marathon race was spent in pitch blackness on an isolated paved trail with only my flashlight providing any visual aid.  On top of that, the humidity was awful (temperature was moderate in the 60's) with it starting to rain at various times in the race.  My throat/esophagus had been irritating me of late, and unfortunately whenever I downed some water or Gatorade it would send me into fits of coughing...so I dispensed with any rehydration for most of the run.  Also, at about the 4-mile mark I began to experience a light stomach ache...but fortunately, that let up after about a mile.  Then, toward the end of my journey through darkness, around the 9-mile mark, the arch in my left foot began to ache...making me wonder whether I'd even be able to finish the race.  However, after about a couple of miles of this, once I was back out "in the light" and could see where I was going, I was able to speed up and run like I was accustomed.  This made the foot-ache completely disappear and I haven't felt any pain since.  A little past the 12-mile mark, I had a big scare when I misjudged the distance between the curb I was running off of and the pavement, causing me to go several strides in a near-horizontal position while I desperately floundered with my arms to maintain my balance and avoid a bad fall.  When I was finally able to straighten back up, I marveled at my own sense of balance through the ordeal and finished the race without further mishap.

My final time for the 13.1 mile run was 2 hours, 3 minutes, and 30 seconds.  I finished 4th out of 8 in my age group (55-59).  Melissa also completed her walk and made me proud!   After it all, they provided some food and drink for all us participants.  Overall, it was a good experience...but I still think the organizers misled us about how overwhelmingly dark conditions would be as well as the fact that the race was far, far away from the business area of Palm Coast (we were actually running through a swamp at one point).  As for my own running, I was astonished with my time at the end, although I had finished several half-marathons in the past with better times. The reason I thought I had run slower than I did was that I had to be very careful with my footing for about half the race because of the darkness...I'm sure I would have broken 2 hours had I been able to better see where I was going...

Just Finished Reading Shadowplay by Tad Williams

Continuing along with Tad Williams' four-part fantasy series Shadowmarch, I just finished reading book #2, titled Shadowplay.  It continues the various narratives of its characters, focusing on twin teenage nobles Prince Barrick and Princess Briony as they struggle to survive and deal with their own personal trials.  The background story, that of a war between the gods reminiscent of Greek or Hindu mythology with accompanying conflicts between various races of people in the world, is gradually revealed through cryptic chapter-heading "quotes" from old religious scriptures.  With this Williams presents a two-fold mystery: one, what actually happens to the protagonists as the story unfolds, and, two, the ultimate explanation of all the weird manifestations plaguing the world and poor Barrick, who miserably suffers from terrible nightmares and seems to have had a mysterious quest implanted in his mind from the enemy Qar leader.  The author also widely spreads out the narrative, and there are many story lines going on at the same time...a little hard to keep up with them all, sad to say.

Shadowplay, unlike a lot of other books within series, has no noticeable ending and as such is hard for me to regard as a separate entity.  Instead, all of the various subplots just trail off, presumably to be resumed at the start of the third book.  By contrast, take a series like Harry Potter that, while moving to an eventual resolution that happens at the end of book #7, still has distinct stories for each memorable book.  Not with Shadowplay, though.  I think this works against the reader being able to remember the story when they finally do get around to starting the next book in the series.  Also, all of this arcane mythology from chapter to chapter doesn't help things, either.  Still, since one of the saving graces of this series is that it comprises only four books, I've already reached the halfway point and expect the author to begin to work to tie everything back together in the last two volumes...he has quite a task ahead of him if he wishes to be successful!

Signed Up to Run Saturday's Half-Marathon in Palm Coast

Well, I finally got around to registering for another half-marathon running race, this one for the Starlight Half-Marathon in Palm Coast, Florida (between St. Augustine and Daytona Beach).  Both this race and the accompanying 5K walk/run, in which Melissa will be participating, are to take place at 6 in the evening.  So it will all happen after sunset...but then again, I'm informed that Palm Coast will be very decorated for Christmas and that the course will be pretty interesting.  Still, since it will be nighttime, we as entrants are each required to carry either a headlight or flashlight...no problem.

I feel very confident about finishing this upcoming race, which with Melissa along reminds me a bit of that cool Orange Blossom Classic dual race we did in Tavares back in March, 2013.  Should be a great adventure...

Miami Dolphins Let Me Down Once Again With Year-End Choke

In the NFL, with today's 41-13 blowout loss to divisional rival New England, the Miami Dolphins, which I had been following and rooting for since 1968 (their third year in existence), have once again demonstrated that when the chips are down late in the season, they consistently opt for mediocrity.  Two weeks ago they were in the driver's seat for a wild card slot in the playoffs, but let themselves get beaten badly by Baltimore at home.  Now, with just two games left in the regular season, I'm seeing them again finishing at 8-8...certain that they'll blow at least one more game against their final two opponents Minnesota and the Jets.  Late in the 2013 regular season, the Dolphins were also in a a very advantageous position for the playoffs at 8-6, with them only having to win one out of their last two games (against inferior teams) to make the playoffs.  But they choked then, too, being beaten resoundingly in both games.  These past two years were supposed to be the start of a new, winning era in Miami Dolphins football, with them breaking through and making the playoffs...even possibly challenging to go to the Super Bowl.  Well, guess what?  They're not going anywhere for a while.  I probably should come to grips with the fact that this franchise simply does not have a winner's attitude and that I'm wasting my support for them...but most likely I'll foolishly go back to cheering them on next year in an unfounded hope for their improbable success.

Now that Miami is "out" for all practical purposes, I can go back to what I do around this time every year, which is look for other teams in the league to follow into the playoffs.  Let's see, the other two Florida teams are awful and the New York Giants are having a miserable season.  So of the teams who are in the playoff hunt right now, I'll probably stick with Seattle in the National Conference and pull for Baltimore in the American...

Fantasy Series I've Been Reading Over the Last Few Years

Here is a list of the fantasy series I've been reading over the past few years, with them ranked in order from my top favorite to least favorite.  And...yes, although I'm in my fifties (late fifties now), I do occasionally like to pick up a "young adult" series and read it.  Sometimes I find them better written and more profound than the more "mature" series. Following each title is the author [in brackets], followed by my reading progress with each series.  Also, I deliberately left out The Hunger Games (by Suzanne Collins), Divergent (by Veronica Roth), and Otherland (by Tad Williams) because I felt that these very worthy series belonged better in the science fiction genre...

1 The Magicians [Lev Grossman] finished trilogy recently
2 The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings [J.R.R. Tolkien] finished both long ago
3 Harry Potter [J.K. Rowling] finished series long ago
4 Mistborn [Brandon Sanderson] 1 trilogy finished, 1 book finished in 2nd trilogy, awaiting next installment
5 His Dark Materials [Philip Pullman] finished trilogy
6 The Dark Tower [Stephen King] finished 7-part series long ago
7 The Chronicles of Narnia [C.S. Lewis] finished 7-part series long ago
8 A Song of Ice and Fire [George R.R. Martin] 5 books finished, awaiting next installment
9 The Dagger and the Coin [Daniel Abraham] 1 book finished, 3 more already published, ongoing series
10 Shadowmarch [Tad Williams] 1 book finished, 1 currently being read in 4-part series (tetralogy)
11 The Sword of Truth [Terry Goodkind] 11 books finished, 0 to go (but author has started new series with same characters)
12 Bartimaeus [Jonathan Stroud] finished trilogy, but now fourth book out
13 Twilight [Stephanie Meyer] finished 4-part series long ago
14 Percy Jackson and the Olympians [Rick Riordan] finished 5-part series long ago
15 Inheritance [Christopher Paolini] finished 4-part series
16 The Wheel of Time [Robert Jordan/Brandon Sanderson] 6 books finished, 8 to go

I've written reviews on this blog for the great majority of these series, which you're welcome to read.  Just copy and paste the title of the series you're interested in to the search window present in the upper left corner on my blog page...

Soccer: Mexican Finale Correction and the Offside Penalty

I'd like to make a correction to my posting this past Monday about the Mexican Liga MX soccer playoff finals for the Apertura split season.  At the article's end, I had speculated that the Tigres of UANL could conceivably win the championship without a victory in a single game (they've advanced to the finals after four straight ties), but the format in the finals is different from the earlier rounds, something of which I was unaware.  True, there are two games involved between the finalists América and Tigres (game #1 tonight and game #2 on Sunday), with the aggregate goal total for both determining the champion.  But should a tie in total goals result at the end of regular play in the second game, there will be overtime and then a possible penalty kick shootout, much like it is in the knockout rounds of the World Cup.  So Tigres will definitely have to win at least ONE game to become champion!

That's one rule I think I've got right, finally.  Another one is the offside rule in soccer: many times I would see an attacking player close to the goal receive a pass from behind, apparently in an offside position, and go on to score a goal.  Later I found out that it is that player's position at the moment when the pass is kicked, not when he (or she) receives it, that determines whether the attacker is offside or not.  So the receiver of the pass in those instances that were actually legal were in the proper position as the pass was released to them...and then they ran ahead of the other defenders as they received it...

Now I'm trying to understand ice hockey's version of the offside penalty (as well as icing).  I think I have it down to the requirement, when an attacker skates across the blue line with the puck into the opponent's defensive zone, that there can't be any teammates already there.  Now that I intellectually know the rule, though, I'd like to see it applied in action...meaning I'll just have to sit down and try to follow a hockey game (good luck with that)...

By the way, you can see the Liga MX Aperatura season finals tonight and Sunday on TV by watching Univision Deportes (in Gainesville it's on Cox Cable Channel 410)...

Just Finished Reading JD Robb's Thankless in Death

Back in October a few weeks ago, my home county of Alachua, Florida held its twice-a-year Friends of the Library book sale here in Gainesville.  Sometimes I go to this event and sometimes I don't.  I went there this time around, looking for cheap paperback novels that weren't all tied into a series.  Among the books, I discovered one by J.D. Robb titled Thankless in Death.  Reading the cover, it didn't give a sign that this was part of a multi-volume series, so I paid the fifty cents and bought it.  Later, though, when I opened it and began to read, I discovered that, although the story in itself didn't directly hinge on earlier ones, it was still part of a very long (more than forty books) string of books featuring the same lead characters...the "in Death" series.  In this regard it reminded me of Sue Grafton's "A,B,C, etc. is For" series, where the protagonists stay the same from book to book but their lives and relationships develop.

With the "in Death" series of Robb, incidentally a pseudonym for Nora Roberts, the real author, the setting is a future (year 2060) New York City (Manhattan) and the main characters are police captain Eve Dallas, her immediate co-workers, and her husband Roarke, an Irish orphaned genius who became a super-wealthy builder in America.  Being set in the future a few decades, the vocabulary of speech has changed a little and it sometimes took me a little bit of effort to figure what they were talking about.  Also, there are innovations like servant robots (that can go out in town and buy stuff and bring it back) and a universal food/beverage device/system called "Autochef".  But besides this, what this series is about, as exemplified by the novel I read, is a police detective working hard to catch really very nasty, bad people....and you can infer from the series title that it focuses on the crime of murder.  Also, the employment climate of the future is one of great opportunity for women, for many of them figure heavily in the police force and story.

Thankless in Death is a crime novel in a series of crime novels...in retrospect it might have been better to start with the first book in order to better follow the character development from book to book.  Then again, I can't see myself following this series through more than forty books.  It's a pretty standard "catch the bad guy" detective story, once you factor out the futuristic gimmickry. Not that I particularly disliked it, mind you, but I was left feeling that there was little in what protagonist Eve Dallas did that distinguished her as a memorable character...and that's an important consideration for me as a potentially repeat reader...

Mexican Soccer: Tigres Advance in Playoffs Without Any Wins in Four Games

The premier Mexican professional soccer league, Liga MX, has finished the first half (the "Apertura") of its split 2014-15 regular season and the playoffs ("Liguilla") has already undergone two rounds with the initial eight teams whittled down to just two: América (based in Mexico City) and Tigres of UANL, one of the two Monterrey teams in the league.  América, the top-seeded team from the regualar season, has advanced in the playoffs the traditional way, mainly by winning.  This may sound like an obvious fact: how else would a team advance past its opponents?  Fancy you should ask that, for the Tigres represent an interesting case.

The UANL Tigres were seeded at #2, just behind América...so for the first two rounds, they were seeded higher than each of their opponents, Pachuca and Toluca.  This is crucial, because in the Liguilla, each round consists of two games between the same teams, with each game played at the other's stadium.  Whoever wins the aggregate goal total for the two games advances, which is pretty self-evident.  It gets a little strange, however, when the total is tied.  The first "tiebreaker" in such a case gives the team that scored the most "away" goals the series.  But if the total is still the same, then tiebreaker #2 kicks in: the higher-seeded team advances.  In the first round, each game saw Pachuca and Tigres drawing at 1-1, so Tigres advanced solely on the basis of their higher seeding.  In the next, semifinal round, Tigres played Toluca...and both games were scoreless.  Once again, Tigres advanced just because they were seeded higher.  And now, having played in these playoffs with ZERO victories to their credit so far in the first four games, Tigres has reached the finals!  But now they'd better get serious and score some goals, for they'll probably have to win at least one game to beat higher-seeded América.  Still, should both games end in draws and Tigres scores more "away" goals, they could conceivably win the Liguilla, and thus the Apertura championship, with not even one victory throughout the entire playoffs!