Watching International Internet TV for Foreign Language Practice

Today I resolved to give myself a little needed exposure to some of the languages I had been studying by watching Internet TV on my laptop using the site wwiTV.  On it, you can select whichever country you want to watch TV from, and then choose from one of the stations available.  It's all free, and it gives you the opportunity not only to practice your language listening skills (mine are sorely lacking) but also get a glimpse into life in other parts of the world.  For myself, I watched French, Russian, and Chinese TV in their languages...although with the latter two I presumed an inherent bias in their programming.  Of course, when you're watching a culinary show demonstrating the various ways to make dishes with duck, the opportunity for propaganda isn't very high...although seeing some of those scrumptious-looking meals made me want to reach into the computer screen and pluck them out...

I had been searching for some sites in other countries that broadcast their own soccer league games with the play-by-play in the native tongue, but I didn't find any.  I'm sure those stations are out there, but they probably come with an extra subscription fee, and that's a no-go for me. So, for soccer, I guess I'll just stick with my own cable TV service here in Gainesville and follow the English Premier League and the Mexican Liga MX, whose games ARE shown...

Just Finished Reading Daniel Abraham's The King's Blood

This weekend I found myself a bit under the weather with a bad, contagious cold, so as happens in situations like this, I stayed at home and watched TV (soccer and the History Channel series I mentioned yesterday)...and read a lot.  I managed to read the rest of Daniel Abraham's book The King's Blood, the second in his ongoing fantasy series The Dagger and the Coin.  Connected with famous author George R.R. Martin through collaboration and the latter's ringing endorsement on his books, Abraham also has written this series in much the same way that Martin has been doing with his A Song of Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones) series.  The ongoing story, spread out over this series' fantasy continent, features alternating passages presented from the views and experiences of various characters, mainly Cithrin, a young precocious teenage girl banker, Marcus, a soldier with a heroic and tragic past, Geder, a minor nobleman, very sensitive to slights, suddenly catapulted into power without any training or preparation, Dawson, a hard-edged nobleman,  and his wife Clara.  The main developing story line in this book seems to be the infiltration through various countries by a mysterious religious sect with its priests containing living spiders in their blood, and who can distinguish truth from lies as well as persuade people to believe what they say.  One of them, Kit, has left this group and recognizes its sinister nature, wanting to bring it down.  Meanwhile, Geder has visited this order and ridden into power over the kingdom of Antea on the backs of the priests' ability to distinguish loyalist from traitor by their speech.  Unfortunately, he has not yet recognized the fact that these priests, while able to tell whether someone is telling the truth or not, themselves have no qualms about lying if it suits their own agenda.  Not wanting to give away the story, I'll just say that Abraham successfully keeps the number of subplots at a manageable level and has done a magnificent job of bringing out each character's personality.  I feel that I somehow know these people...a great accomplishment on the part of the author.  In spite of the fact that I am tiring somewhat of the fantasy genre of fiction and don't plan to start reading any new series anytime soon, I definitely intend to keep up with this ongoing work.  I've already begun reading the next book in this series, titled The Tyrant's Law...

The History Channel Showing Excellent Series Right Now

I was channel surfing early this afternoon and, lo and behold, when I hit upon The History Channel, they were actually showing something about history, for a change.  As a matter of fact, the series they are presenting (and will be until 7 tonight) is a twelve-part blockbuster titled Mankind: The Story of All of Us.  I happened to tune in during episode #8, which covers the period from the 15th through 17th centuries.  It's quite an amazing series, and it ties the world together through the various trends, events, and personalities of each era.  I probably won't watch it continually until 7 (after which the usual non-historical, dull programming resumes on The History Channel), but then again, it's such an intriguing, well-written and produced series that I won't be surprised if I do...

Give Runners Choice During Race Between Half-Marathon and Marathon

My running training is rarely a matter of me establishing a set amount of miles beforehand and then running them.  Instead, I will run as circumstances dictate, both those external and internal.  For example, I may be operating one day under time constraints that limit the amount of running time I can spend.  Or I might be feeling under the weather or have a slight injury to nurse.  But when I have the flexibility of time and I'm physically feeling good enough, then my mileage on any particular run becomes open-ended...and it's always seemed to be that way, ever since I resumed the activity in 2007 after essentially ignoring it for thirty years (exception: a short three months running period in early 1998).  Sometimes this way I will go on and on with a run, racking up huge mileages...and sometimes I'll stop at a lower level.  Which brings me to a proposal about some of the long-distance races I've entered before...

As I see it, there are two types of half-marathon races out there: the races that only feature that one length of the course and those which combine the 13.1-mile half-marathon course with a 26.2-mile full marathon course.  One of the latter is coming up on February 15: Gainesville's FivePoints Marathon/Half Marathon, the two races being run concurrently.  That's important with regard to my proposal...

In the FivePoints races, both events run the same course for the first 13 miles.  Then, just as the half-marathon event is almost finished, all of the runners encounter an intersection with directing signs.  The arrow pointing to the right is for the half-marathoners to follow and finish up their almost-completed race, while the left-pointing arrow directs the marathon entrants to continue their race another 13-plus miles.  Of course, the way things stand now, there's no choice involved here: the runners have either signed up for the half-marathon or the marathon and they can only finish in that event for which they are already registered.  But suppose, just suppose...

Suppose that there is a third option for runners that gives them the opportunity to choose to go either left or right at that intersection!  That would be awfully intriguing for someone like me who usually keeps on running in my training when I'm feeling strong.  It would be a tantalizing decision to make, indeed.  It reminds me a little of the Matrix movie scene when Morpheus presents Neo with the choice of choosing the blue pill (end the adventure now and go back to life as you want to believe it) or the red pill (and see how far down the "rabbit hole" goes)...

Bad Super Bowl Call Evokes Memories of Earlier Game

I missed out on this year's Super Bowl between Seattle and New England, partially because I had to go to work that evening...and partially because, even though I liked the Seahawks, I still didn't want to watch the Patriots collect any hint of glory by being in it.  Of course, at my workplace,  one of the Patriots fans had to whoop and holler when she found out the game's ultimate outcome: a squeaker New England win after the Seattle coach Pete Carroll (who I still think is a good coach) made an idiotic call at the Patriots' goal line by passing up on giving the ball to their star running back Marshawn Lynch and instead calling for a short goal line pass, which was intercepted by the Patriots and ended the game in their favor.  This boner of a play call brought back bitter memories of another game involving New England, this one against "my" team, the Miami Dolphins...

It was the last day of the regular season in 2002 for Miami, which was shooting for their sixth straight playoff appearance.  The week before, at 9-5 all they had to do was to win one of their last two games to lock up a spot.  But they blew the first of the two to weak Minnesota, setting up the final showdown in New England against the Patriots.  That team had won their first Super Bowl in dramatic fashion in their comeback game against St. Louis the year before and Tom Brady had become very, very famous.  But the Patriots found themselves struggling for just a simple playoff spot, for which they needed to win their last game as well as get some "help" from other games.  The Dolphins, under their mediocre coach Dave Wannstedt, who was enjoying the fruits of a team that had been built up and coached previously by proven Super Bowl winners Don Shula and Jimmie Johnson, were still 9-6 and assured of a playoff position should they beat New England.  And they were winning the game late, 24-13.  But the Patriots, in typical Tom Brady fashion, caught fire late and narrowed it to 24-21. Miami had the ball deep in their own territory with about two minutes to go.  They had their then-star running back Rickie Williams, who that day had a career performance with already more than 180 yards rushing.  All Miami had to do was give the ball to Rickie and run out the clock...and then prepare for the playoffs.  Instead, Wannstedt the Genius had Miami throw three consecutive passes...all incomplete clock-stoppers...and they then short-punted the ball back to the Patriots, who sent the game into overtime (during which they scored and won) with a long field goal.  That game was a heartbreaker for me as a Dolphins fan, and it destroyed any confidence I had in their coach...

In spite of similar stupidity on the part of Pete Carroll, I have to remind folks that he did give the Seahawks two straight Super Bowl appearances and a championship last year.  He is worth supporting...and besides, everyone screws up every now and then.  I remember a game against the Colts a few years ago in which, late in the game with a fourth down situation, Patriots coach Bill Belichick opted to go for a first down deep in his own territory while defending a short lead...and failing, giving Indianapolis the chance to get the ball back and win it, which they did...

Flag Planters and Travel Addicts

I have never knowingly met John, a marathon runner whose commitment to the sport has placed him squarely in the "fanatic" category.  He is currently in his early seventies and claims to have successfully entered and finished marathons in more countries of the world than any other runner...not to mention all fifty states of the USA.  Now, though, his mounting health problems have forced him to give up this undertaking.  I'm sad about that, because over the past few years I had become fond of reading about his adventures on his blog.  I may have even inadvertently "run" into him without knowing it, since we were entered in the same races twice, in Gainesville and Ocala...well, actually, he was running the marathon in them and I was doing the half-marathon...

John is an example of someone whom I term a "flag planter"...as well as a "travel addict". Flag planting involves accumulating states and countries that one has visited and/or involved in their designated activities.  Travel addiction, not necessarily attributable to people who like to go on occasional vacations or special trips, refers to those who seem incapable of staying put in any one locale for very long. The two designations can coincide, as in John's case, but they can also be disjoint.  For example, people can be engaged in hobbies that don't necessarily involve travel but still involve counting how many countries (or states) they are covering with it.  As a kid, I used to have a hobby in which I would listen to my own cheap little AM radio (back in the 1960s) and try to pick up long-distance stations.  From southern Florida, I managed to get stations from 31 different states (and I remember them to this day).  Nowadays, though, with the Internet available, this doesn't seem like such an accomplishment.  And a few years ago, quarters were issued for each state as well, with many coin collectors trying to "fill the map" with that numismatic endeavor...

Travel addicts rarely openly admit to their affliction.  Instead, they usually have come up with some grand cause to justify their unceasing travels, be it through employment, education, religion, maintaining family contacts, or other rationales.  John is a case in point, with his goal of planting his flag across the country and world through his marathons.  But you can't do what he did over the years without getting off on travel.  Of course, travel costs money and some people need to have someone else foot the bill for their movements hither and yon.  Social media tends to affirm these habitually restless people as they document, photograph, and publish their various forays with almost assured multiple "likes"...

I am neither a travel addict nor someone who still feels the need to "plant my flag" in different places with my exploits.  That clearly distinguishes me from John, but there is one thing in common between us: we like to run and we are both getting older and more prone to medical/health issues that can limit that running.  John, who is about 14 years older than me, just happens to be a little ahead of me in that regard...

Groundhog Day Movie Carries Life Lessons...Up To a Point

Today is February 2nd, also more popularly known as Groundhog Day here in the USA.  I've never been into the story of the groundhog that either sees its shadow or doesn't and thus forecasts how much longer the cold season is supposed to last...but probably me having lived down here in Florida almost my entire life has something to do with that.  Still, I did enjoy very much the same-titled 1993 movie starring Bill Murray as selfish and vain Pittsburgh television weatherman Phil Connors, who gets trapped in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania while on assignment during Groundhog Day and keeps repeating it with no end in sight.  If you've seen this movie, then you understand how Connors eventually learns some lessons in living and becomes a better person at the end.  That's all very well and good for a make-believe story with an absurd premise like this, but in real life we all live hanging out over the edge of the "now", with our immediate actions taking on a kind of urgency that someone like Connors, with his knowledge that he could go "back to the drawing board" the very next day (which for him was that same day repeated), could be bolder and more experimental.  I suppose that any of us, given just one day to repeatedly live over and over again, could eventually get it "right" and achieve a kind of "sainthood", at least for that one day...but once we finally break through to the following day...with Connors it was February 3rd...we're all back to square one again, even if, like Connors, we gained some wisdom and character-building through our "Groundhog Day" ordeals.  I think the movie Groundhog Day would have been more interesting had it continued a little past its original ending and showed Murray's character screwing up again...

Ran Gainesville's Newnan's Lake 15K Race This Morning

After missing out on the Ocala Half-Marathon last week, I was looking forward to quickly bouncing back with my running by participating in Gainesville's Newnan's Lake 15K this morning.   My intention was simple with this race: go out and run the 9.3-mile course like it's a regular training run.  Of course, that strategy usually lasts just a few miles into the race before I get overcome with competition fever.  But this morning, at least for a little while, I was content with just going my usual pace, which hovers around nine minutes per mile...

When I first pulled into the race site's crowded parking lot (a park with a ramp for fishing boats into Newnan's Lake), the temperature had spiked downward for this race day and was around 37.  However, I was fortunate to find the last available space in the paved lot, which also happened to be about twenty feet from the starting line.  After registering for the race, I returned to the car and bundled up until just before race time at 8:30.  I stood near the front of the crowd, which the announcer claimed was a record, approaching 400 entrants.  I've stood near the rear at the start of  some previous races and have had a lot of difficulty trying to pass by excessively slow runners (and a few walkers), so I thought the passing would be kept to a minimum this way.  But during the first few minutes after the race started, it was other runners passing me...by the droves.  I began to wonder if maybe I wasn't in good enough shape to run this race.  As it turned out, after about three miles or so, I found myself in the midst of a number of runners who kept with my pace.  But at about that same time I began to experience some cramping on my right side, and I wondered whether it would worsen.  Fortunately, it didn't, but the pain still lingered on for a few miles.  I kept pushing on, not wanting to fade within my own group, and thinking that this just wasn't my day.  But I managed to hold on and finish the race, with a couple of runners passing me at the end and me passing another.  When I saw my final finishing time, I had to do a double take.  At my usual pace, I had been anticipating something around 1 hour, 23 minutes, but I felt as if it would be slower.  Instead, though, my final time was 1:18:21.  I'd been burning it up all along!  Which goes to show you that you can't always tell how well you're doing by comparing yourself to the runners around you or by how you physically feel during the race.  Gainesville is packed with talented, fast, and yes, fanatical long-distance runners...it's easy to come down with an inferiority complex in the middle of a race with them.  I finished seventh in my age group (55-59), so there was no point in hanging around the area for award time.

I liked the course for this race, which in places bordered on the swampy part of Newnan's Lake, but mostly went down woodsy roads or by a few houses in this sparsely populated area a few miles east of Gainesville.  Once the race had finally begun and I was running, the weather stopped being a factor and once again I wondered how some of the overdressed runners around me were able to withstand it.

My recovery from the run seems to be going very well, and I was able to close out the month of January, 2015 with a total running mileage of 342.  I ran on every day of the month, and my longest single run was 10.2 miles. On one day, though, I managed to accumulate 20 miles through multiple runs.

In a couple of weeks, Gainesville will hold the FivePoints Marathon/Half-Marathon race.  I still want to participate in it, but will definitely stick with the half-marathon event.  Also, having learned my lesson from the Ocala Half-Marathon, I plan to wait until the very last minute to sign up for it..

Just Finished Reading Franz Kafka's Short Story Metamorphosis

The German-Bohemian early twentieth-century writer Franz Kafka wrote a short story, published in 1915, titled Metamorphosis, and which I just read.  Its overt theme is preposterous: a young man wakes up one morning to discover that he has suddenly and completely transformed into a huge, human-sized bug.  His parents and sister, with whom he is living and whom he has been supporting through his employment, are more disgusted and horrified at his transformation than surprised...which is a clue leading the reader to assume that this is an analogy to something else the author wants to discuss. This unfortunate young man, Gregor Samsa, is still fully in possession of his reasoning faculties, but his efforts to communicate his thoughts to others around him fall on deaf ears: all they can hear are his insect sounds.  Gregor soon finds himself locked in his room, with only his sister showing the compassion to care for his needs.  But eventually even she tires of dealing with him, and he ends up wasting away by himself while his family stigmatizes and hates him.  So what is the analogy, anyway?

Some believe that this all has something to do with the persecution that Jews experienced in Europe, persecution that led to concentration camps and the Holocaust in later years. The sudden change in the story, this way, relates to the change in which Jews were suddenly viewed in society. I tend to disagree with this interpretation because the analogy breaks down too much.  Gregor has actually changed, not just others' interpretation of his status, and recognizes it himself.  Instead, as I see it, this tale has a two-fold meaning...

The first aspect I see is that the people one is closest to and most familiar with in life tend to be almost reactionary in their resistance to personal change...and if that change comes suddenly then a breakdown in communication can lead to shunning and a break in the relationship.  So if someone suddenly changes their religious belief system (or completely renounces religion) or succumbs to a form of mental illness such as schizophrenia, they may (at least to themselves) still remain in full possession of their faculties.  But the unwelcome rift caused by the draconian change will impede their ability to communicate effectively.  The fact that Gregor's transformation is so massive makes me believe that this may be an allegory for the descent into severe mental illness...and the prejudice against those so afflicted that ran so rampant through society back then (and even now, to a lesser extent).  Remember that just twenty years after the publication of this story, Hitler's Holocaust would begin with the rooting out and extermination of Germany's mentally ill, along with the physically and mentally handicapped.

A second aspect to Metamorphosis, as I see it, is how, once someone like Gregor, who has been holding his family together with his work supporting them, is taken out of the picture, the other members will adapt, grow, and become stronger and more self-reliant.  So this may also have been an early study on the phenomenon of co-dependence.

That's my own reaction to Kafka's Metamorphosis.  But as many writers will tell you, their own intentions behind their stories are not carved in granite and that what each reader takes away from the material carries its own validity...

My Two Cents Worth About the Upcoming Super Bowl

I'd better put in my two cents worth about the approaching Super Bowl game between the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots before I forget.  First of all, I like Seattle but am not at all happy to see New England in there.  Being a Miami Dolphins fan and remembering the infamous "snow plow" incident that cost them a game against the Patriots, long before the most recent scandals tagged to this franchise, I have never viewed them as a team that plays fairly.  So this "Deflategate" story doesn't surprise me a bit.  But now I'm hearing that the New England players are so angry about the accusations flying around and the negative media attention they are getting that they may be extra-motivated against the Seahawks and end up beating them badly.  This sounds to me a lot like the way the Seattle players went around last year with a chip on their shoulders, acting as if they weren't getting enough respect in comparison to their then-opponent, the Denver Broncos.  And they pulverized their Super Bowl opponent, 43-8.  Now I have a problem with this...

If you and your team suddenly find yourselves "motivated" due to a perceived slight and proceed to play at a high level in a particular game, doesn't that in turn imply, in more normal circumstances, that you are holding back your efforts and NOT playing at an optimal level?  Furthermore, these NFL players are professionals and are reaping in the money at a rate most people would find difficult to imagine.  Yet they behave as if the quality of their performance isn't due to their own ingrained character, talent, and training but rather is something somewhat whimsical, dependent on outside factors.  This makes me wonder whether any of these teams are worth rooting for, and after discovering during the Deflategate scandal what monumental prima donnas NFL quarterbacks are about "their" footballs, my doubts about their worthiness have only increased...

Just Finished Reading Tad Williams' Shadowrise

As I find myself increasingly suffering from fantasy fiction overload, I continue to make progress plodding through the remaining series I'm still reading...after which I plan to take a vacation from the genre.  One of these is the tetralogy by Tad Williams titled Shadowmarch (also the name of its first book).  I just finished reading part three, titled Shadowrise.  Only one more book left to go!  That's good, because the characters in this series all seem to be undergoing extreme, chronic suffering...that is, except the bad guys (who I suppose will receive their comeuppance at the end of the last book).  This is especially true for protagonist Prince Barrick Eddon of Southmarch to the point that whenever the book channels off into his story line, I automatically start groaning to myself...anticipating my own suffering as a reader alongside the young prince's unceasing ordeals.  It's almost comical, the relentless and almost universal suffering in this series. Also, Williams has so many loose threads going on with the plot and diverse characters that I anticipate much of the final book will be an effort on his part to explain it all.  Good luck with that...I already plan to go into book four with the idea that, at least at its conclusion, everyone will finally be put out of their misery.  I know I'll be...

My Running Back in Swing, 15K Gainesville Race This Saturday

Although I didn't run as planned in last Sunday's Ocala Half-Marathon because I felt horrendous the previous night, it looks as if another race has made itself available to me...one which is much closer and less expensive.  This coming Saturday morning, a few miles east of Gainesville, will be the Newnan's Lake 15K (9.3 miles).  I have never run it before since its scheduled time usually conflicts with the Ocala race.  But I'm feeling much better now...as a matter of fact, this morning I had a 10.2 mile run and have amassed, over the day, a total of 14.4 miles.  Still, I think I'll wait until raceday morning before I sign up, just to be on the safe side.  It should be fun to run this event, which seems to be very popular with Gainesville's running community...

Saw The Imitation Game Recently

The Imitation Game, starring rising actor Benedict Cumberbatch as English mathematician Alan Turing, is a great historical/biographical drama focusing on a period during World War II when Germany had the upper hand over the Allies...in particular Great Britain...and the latter was desperately trying to crack the German Enigma code that the Third Reich universally used in its naval transmissions.  Turing, as he was portrayed, was a difficult, socially incompetent individual who was nevertheless one of the foremost mathematical minds of his time.  He was able, along with the help of the team assigned to him, to construct a prototype computer, called the Turing Machine, that was able to finally crack the code.  The struggles between great minds under great stress, with deadlines, the struggle to obtain needed resources, and conflicts with the base's military commander, to invent what seemed to be an impossible solution out of thin air made The Imitation Game a masterpiece of suspense...even when we know in advance the outcome of the project.

During the project, as the movie depicts it, Turing goes out and selects two people to add to his team.  One of them is Joan Clarke, whom others around her belittle because of her sex but whose brilliance Turing totally recognizes as they work out many of the assignment's problems together.  Their relationship becomes rather personal, although it is known between them that Turing was homosexual...which at the time was a crime in Britain.  Later it was implied that, years after the war when the police investigated a burglary at Turing's home and his homosexuality was revealed, leading to a choice between incarceration and chemical castration, the great mathematician and savior of the Allies during World War II committed suicide not long after undergoing the latter.  It was important that the film covered this, if only to show the brutal persecution that gays have suffered, even (or especially) in recent history.

Because of the top-secret nature of his code-breaking project, it wasn't until decades after Alan Turing's death that the scope of his accomplishments were revealed, both in terms of his contribution to the defeat of the Nazi empire and the foundation of the computer era.  What an major, indispensable figure in history he turned out to be!  I don't know whether or not the Oscar-nominated movie The Imitation Game is the best picture of last year, since I haven't seen all of the others, but I highly recommend it as it is well acted and directed and provides an eye-opening perspective on a crucial aspect of modern history that had been hidden from us for so long...

Skipped Planned Ocala Half-Marathon This Morning

This morning I passed up on running my planned Ocala Half-Marathon due to either a severe food allergy reaction or a viral attack yesterday...most likely the former.  The problem with either of these is that they cause general inflammation throughout my body, and I have been advised by my physician to be on guard with this sort of thing when considering stressing out my body on long runs.  It is disappointing that I missed this race, which I had been looking forward to for a while.  Still, I'd rather err on the side of caution and not be foolhardy with my actions. This morning, as it turned out, I felt much better and have already run 3.5 miles.  I'll still have the opportunity to run in Gainesville's FivePoints Half-Marathon next month...but I think I'm going to delay my registration until the last possible moment...these races aren't cheap to enter!

Oh, by the way, my prediction (in an earlier article) of a downward spike in temperature was borne out, with it getting down to around 35 this morning at race time...

Worst NFL Teams Shouldn't Be Rewarded in Draft

In professional sports such as football and basketball, much attention is given to the annual draft of new talent into the league, and which teams have the top picks.  For the purpose of advancing parity, the policy is to reward the teams having the worst records with the best picks, something that I feel takes away from the integrity of the sport, especially in football (in pro basketball, a weighted lottery decides the final order of draft selection).  This past season's worst team in the National Football League, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, will get the top pick.  But poor play should not be rewarded, and knowing that your team is in the running for that top draft pick is a disincentive to play your hardest to win in late season games that might have an important bearing on where other teams end up placing in the playoff picture.  Well, there is, in my opinion, a reasonable solution to this problem...and it comes from international soccer.

In many soccer-avid countries like England, Mexico, France,  Germany, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, and  Italy, to just name some of the most prominent, the teams that finish the worst each year aren't rewarded for that...no, instead  they are demoted to the next lower league!  Conversely, the same number of teams from that next lower league who have the most successful seasons get to be promoted to the next higher league.  The number of teams that yearly rise and fall varies for  each league (in Mexico it's just one team, in England it's three).  But the result is that, for the teams that find themselves near the bottom of the standings as the season progresses, there is a great incentive to continue playing competitively in order to avoid the humiliation and financial setback associated with demotion (or "relegation", as it is officially called).  So how would the NFL look under such a system?

Since American football is structured differently here with its well-developed system of college football, we don't have the multitude of professional leagues that could use promotion and relegation.  So what I propose is to create a second-tier league under the regular NFL, with ten-to-twelve expansion teams distributed among cities with promising pro football markets (including, of course, Los Angeles).  They would play their regular season parallel to the regular league.  At the end, the champion of this "junior" league would be promoted to the NFL AND get the top draft pick, while the NFL's worst finishing team would be demoted (relegated) to this second-tier league.  Or, the number of teams promoted and relegated could be increased to two or three.  Other than the promoted team(s) getting the top draft picks, the order of the rest of the draft could be randomized into a lottery unweighted by order of finish.  This would finish the prospect of any hint of a team writing off the season midway through it in order to enhance the following year's lineup through a higher draft position...

Getting the Victim and Aggressor Backward with Political Correctness

One of the big sticking points causing a lot of griping in the conservative media, be it talk radio, FoxNews Channel, the Internet, or print, is that whenever a terrorist attack happens anywhere in the world, be it in America, India, the Philippines, Nigeria, Iraq, France, Great Britain, Russia, Israel, Belgium, Libya, Spain, Pakistan, Canada...whew, I have to catch my breath...let's just say anywhere there's a country, and the violent act that takes innocent lives is openly described by the perpetrator(s) as being inspired by their interpretation of Islam, then our government simply will refuse to say the word "Islamic" or "Muslim" to describe the terrorists.  The chief guilty party in this is President Obama himself.  Instead, the population at-large is treated to a condescending lesson about how WE are not supposed to be prejudiced against other groups...including of course Islam...as if WE were the bad guys and were hell-bent on retaliating or discriminating against them...instead of the true haters, which are the terrorists and those within their faith (not the faith as a whole) who support them.  In fact, behind this "politically correct" self-censoring on the part of some of our political leadership is their own prejudicial assumption, which is that we the people are just a bunch of ignorant, emotionally immature and bigoted yahoos who have to be restrained and "taught".  I, for one, feel a bit insulted by all this when I can see what is going on before my very eyes.  No, Islam as a whole isn't responsible for terrorism that certain violent adherents within it perpetrate...but without certain doctrines and tenets of that faith that are being interpreted and acted on in an extreme and violent way, we would not have the overwhelming number of cases of terrorist attacks in the news that we have been sadly witnessing in recent times.  Sure, there are other extremist groups as well as lone-wolf nutcases and you hear about them from time to time in news.  But with them, it's apparently OK to dwell on the causes and possible belief systems underpinning THEIR deplorable actions...

President Obama Gives State of the Union Speech

Yesterday President Obama laid out his vision for the rest of his term in office in his State of the Union address, given before a joint session of Congress.  I did not watch it, but caught most of it from the radio. It was a good speech, as this president is so adept at when presenting prepared material to a group.  Although the President covered many topics, his salient points, as I saw it, were (1) the economic recovery is going full swing, but that it is important that the middle class and poor be able to enjoy the benefits as well as the rich (meaning raise taxes on the higher-income brackets), (2) our foreign policy should be carefully crafted so that we explore and implement a variety of approaches when dealing with our enemies abroad...so that we don't allow ourselves to get mired down in wars, and (3) we should invest in education and infrastructure to keep America at the forefront of the world.  With regard to the last point, he alluded to his recent proposal of granting free community college education (I wonder if that includes soon-to-be old-timers like me who want to do something new as retirement approaches...no, I'm probably excluded) as well as diminishing the significance of the important Keystone XL Pipeline issue now before Congress by stating that the various needed infrastructure construction and repair projects for the country would generate thirty times more jobs than "one pipeline".  And he pushed all of the required liberal social issue buttons, including more than once supporting gay rights and same-sex marriage (which he opposed back in 2008 when that stance was more politically feasible for him).

I don't have a problem with a lot of President Obama's speech, but I do have a major one with this tendency of him to smugly dismiss issues that others consider to be important.  For example, in 2009, after single-handedly forcing NASA to abandon its worthy and ambitious project to establish a base on the moon (after he had promised during the 2008 campaign not to do this), he brushed away any criticism with the flippant comment "We've already been there".  That offended me somehow.  Now it's just this "one pipeline"... just a drop in the bucket, right?  But it is the number one item for consideration for the new Republican congressional majority in both houses and, regardless whether you're for or against the pipeline (I happen to be for it), his casual brushoff of the issue does not bode well for his relationship with either the Senate or the House in the next two years.  No, sadly, I see this speech, which might have been more constructive and conciliatory, to have been little more than oratorical posturing for the primary purpose of shoring up the Democratic Party base for the next election, in other words, the same old "stuff".  Perhaps the saddest thing of all, though, is that regarding this president, whom I have supported through two elections (though not wholeheartedly in the last one), he would still get my vote were he eligible to run again as I look at the sorry list of Republicans (especially Mr. Romney, the perennial candidate) who currently have their power-hungry eyes fixed on his job...

Today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day

Today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a national holiday.  It's January 19, although the late civil rights leader's birthday is on the 15th.  I'm off from work today, or should I say I WAS off for earlier this morning (I work on one of those problematic late night "graveyard" shifts). To many, I suppose, these "Monday" holidays can be seen as some extra free time.  But I think that the intent with the establishment of these special days on our calendar is for each of us to step back and reflect, at least a little, on their meaning and whom they are honoring...

Into the 1960s, even after the United States Supreme Court had, in 1954, unanimously nullified the "separate-but-equal" policy enacted after the ill-advised Plessy v. Ferguson decision of 1896 that officially legalized and institutionalized racial segregation (and consequently, racial discrimination) in America, blacks were being prevented from sharing the same rights as citizens that whites had, especially in the Deep South.  Dr. King's struggle on behalf of blacks...and ultimately, us all...started in 1955 when he organized a boycott of Montgomery, Alabama's bus system after Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white passenger and was arrested for it.  For the next several years, King and others marched and pushed for integration and equal rights for all.  He was a strong voice in favor of peaceful protest, and during the 1960s when others were promoting a more violent agenda for revolution, he played the role of peacemaker.  Martin Luther King, Jr. was also very clear in his denunciation of the U.S. military involvement in Vietnam from its outset, and this refusal on his part to compromise his own principles cost him much popularity at the time with those who had supported his civil rights activism but also supported the war effort.  At the end of his bitterly short life (assassinated at age 39), he was working hard to expose the poverty conditions of millions in this country and improve them.  Never fully understood and respected during his lifetime, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., by no means a perfect person (as none of us can honestly claim to be, either), has shown himself to have been a visionary whose compassion and stances on behalf of the downtrodden will go down through history...

Signed Up to Run Next Sunday's Ocala Half-Marathon

Get ready for a downward spike in temperatures next Sunday morning here in the Gainesville-Ocala area, for once again I am running in Ocala's distance running event then...and it ALWAYS is super-cold (i.e. below freezing) whenever I run one of these races in Gainesville or Ocala, for some perverse reason.  Just once I'd like the temperature at race time to be around 45 degrees or so... still somewhat cold...but pleasantly so.  But maybe, just maybe, this time around it will be a little bit warmer.

I had a good ten-mile run yesterday and have a lot of confidence in running this upcoming race, especially after doing better than I expected in December's Palm Coast Starlight Half-Marathon.  I've run this course twice before, in 2011 and 2013...and 2011's race was a full 26.2-mile marathon (in which I suffered an IT band injury under my right knee and had to walk the last seven miles).  I would have preferred to be a regular marathon runner, but the training for this long distance seems to predispose me to injury.  It's too bad they instead don't have 20-mile races, or even 30K races (18.6 miles)...I think I could regularly handle those distances.  Still, I'd like to run another marathon, even considering the upcoming Gainesville FivePoints event in February for this.  But it will depend greatly on how I feel as I approach the online registration deadline and have to decide whether to run the full marathon or the half-marathon (which I've done here in 2010 and 2014)...

NFL Playoffs Down to Four Teams

The National Football League playoffs are now down to the final four teams, with the conference championship games taking place tomorrow afternoon and evening.  The first contest will be for the NFC championship, with the Green Bay Packers visiting the defending Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks.  The second one has the New England Patriots hosting the Indianapolis Colts for the AFC title.  My preferences for these games lie with favorite Seattle and underdog Indianapolis.  With these four teams my best possible scenario would be for the Seahawks to repeat as Super Bowl Champs and the worst for the Dolphins' divisional nemesis Patriots to win it all. I'm a little bit concerned about New England because, regarding the two teams that have beaten them in the playoffs during recent years, Baltimore and the New York Giants, the Ravens were beaten by the Pats in last week's game...and the Giants never did manage to make the playoffs.  So somebody else will have to step up and perform the necessary deed.

And why to I like Seattle? This is a complete team whose members "get it" regarding working together as a unit...and those who don't are gone.  Their head coach, Pete Carroll, imparts a very infectious enthusiasm while maintaining a high level of team discipline, something that "players' coaches" like Rex Ryan (or my own Florida Gators former coaches Ron Zook and Will Muschamp) couldn't.  Not that the Seahawks players don't like their head coach: there's nothing like monumental success to breed affection.  I find that balance in Carroll's coaching philosophy to be fascinating...he could be the best head coach out there right now...