Just Finished Reading Janet Evanovich's One For the Money

Janet Evanovich is a mystery writer whose books I have been running across on library and bookstore shelves for many years but until just now never got around to reading any.  She is best-known for her Stephanie Plum series, which numbers twenty-three books so far and, like James Patterson's Women's Murder Club series, contains each book's number in the series within its title.  I decided to start with the first book and just finished reading One For the Money, originally published in 1994...

In One For the Money, Stephanie Plum is introduced as a young Trenton, New Jersey woman who finds herself unemployed and quickly running out of money...her car has just been repossessed.  Her mother, whom she visits for meals from time to time, is hilarious as is Grandma Mazur...the dialogue is classic "Jersey thing".  The name of Stephanie's slimy uncle Vinnie is brought up: he is a bail bondsman and apparently there is an office worker position open.  Against her better instincts, Stephanie gives in to her mother's prodding and goes there, only to find the job already filled.  But while there she discovers that she can make big money fast by bringing in bail dodgers...so with some slimy arm-twisting of her own, she convinces her skeptical uncle to let her try out some cases.  As it turns out, the one case that she becomes obsessed with involves a former one-time lover of hers, Joe Morelli, a policeman who has jumped bail after being charged with the murder of an unarmed man.  And here is where I leave off, just in case you're in the same boat as myself and feel like finally picking up a Janet Evanovich book and reading it...

Janet Evanovich adds an interesting twist to the mystery genre with Stephanie Plum's bounty hunter vocation...contrast this with the private detectives and homicide investigators in other series.  And she starts out her new career in complete ignorance, having to learn the hard way: through her many and often comical mistakes.  Fortunately there is Ranger, another bounty hunter working for Vinnie, who helps her out with various aspects...some of them legally suspect...of the trade.  I liked One For the Money because the characters were realistic and sympathetic and...I have to admit I like this in a book...it was relatively short.  But what I liked the most was when Stephanie would visit her parents and Grandma Mazur for dinner, and all that terrific Jersey conversation would ensue...

Gorsuch Supreme Court Confirmation Enters Final Week

All day yesterday the Senate Judiciary Committee held its final session for the nomination of Neil Gorsuch to the U.S. Supreme Court.  Each of the committee members gave their speeches pro or con about this nominee, set to replace the late Antonin Scalia as an associate justice. Afterwards, the full committee voted and sent his nomination to the Senate floor for debate and final vote.  I watched much of the proceedings on C-Span2 and gained some insight into the various viewpoints on Gorsuch.  For example, I heard a couple of Democratic senators criticize the federal judge for excessive writings of concurrent opinions in various cases, opinions that in their opinion expressed an ideological purpose in altering the law and its interpretation...Judge Gorsuch was even known on a number of occasions to write concurring opinions to the majority opinions that he himself wrote.  One of these senators, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, contrasted this tendency of Gorsuch to try to broaden rulings to another federal appeals judge, Merrick Garland...nominated by President Obama in 2016 to fill the same seat for which Gorsuch is now being considered.  Garland is a minimalist, in the tradition of former Supreme Court Justice Byron White (for whom Gorsuch clerked), in that he seeks the narrowest application of law to a judgment and is thereby much less likely to make a politically-charged, judicially activist ruling.  But both Gorsuch and Garland are well-known on their courts as consensus builders with other judges...

I think it's a done deal, in spite of the Democrats staging a filibuster against Neil Gorsuch this week on the Senate floor, that this nominee will be confirmed by floor vote on Friday, when Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will have the rules changed to be able to end debate and invoke cloture by a simple majority vote.  I have my own concerns about Neil Gorsuch, especially how in some cases he has had a tendency to play around with the definitions of words in order to reach the conclusion he felt most comfortable with.  But he has sat on some 2,700 cases on his 10th Circuit Court of Appeals since 2006: 97% of the decisions there he voted unanimously with the other judges on that court and 99% of them he was on the majority side.   And I don't necessarily believe that you can rate a judge by how many times he rules on the side of the "little guy" versus how often he supports big money and corporations...judges are supposed to apply the law accurately and sometimes the compelling argument weighs on the side of the latter.  Although Neil Gorsuch is regarded as conservative and was nominated by a conservative Republican president, I think the real reason for the Democratic filibuster against him is the way Merrick Garland was summarily rejected out of hand last year by the Republican Senate leadership and not even accorded a hearing, much less a floor debate and vote.  For the Republican senators to express outrage at the Democrats' filibuster attempt is about as hypocritical as it can get.  Yet I don't favor a filibuster, either...getting a supermajority of votes (60) in order to close out debate and advance the Supreme Court confirmation process to a final floor vote has only become a significant factor in the process during the last few years...else why wouldn't the Democrats in 1991 have filibustered Clarence Thomas when he barely ended up confirmed by a vote of 52-48?  No, Neil Gorsuch will be our next Supreme Court justice, for better or for worse.  I'm a bit skeptical of him right now, but we'll just have to wait and see how well (or badly) he does...

Some Sports Talk

I like to watch sports on TV, team sports that is...you can keep your golf, tennis, swimming, running, boxing, UFC, and so on.  No, what I prefer as a spectator are sports like soccer, basketball, baseball, football...and lately, ice hockey.  It just so happens that four of these have a lot going on right now.  In women's college basketball, the Division I championship finale yesterday pitted two SEC schools: Mississippi State, which just came off a huge upset of Connecticut in the semifinals, and South Carolina.  I think that the Bulldogs must have been spent after that win, because South Carolina built up an early lead and stopped Mississippi State from scoring beyond the three-point line...eventually winning the national championship going away.  In the men's NCAA Division I championship game...to begin tonight a little past nine...my remaining favorite, North Carolina...with its incredible rebounding ability...will play Gonzaga, a team that has lost only once all year.  But I'll be at work during this game, regrettably missing out on it...

The playoffs are set to begin in the National Hockey League soon, and I honestly don't have a favorite team right now.   The other night I watched a game between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh and, for the first time, felt that I understood the game and was able to follow it...wow, that makes a big difference!  Not that I'm going to be a hockey fanatic any time soon, but from time to time during the Stanley Cup playoffs I'm certain to watch some televised games...

There is one sport I haven't mentioned because it has a combination team/individual duality to it: bicycle racing.  This July the Tour de France will take place, and I have a tendency to stay glued to the television watching the excitement...as well as the beautiful, often breathtaking scenery as the competitors pedal their way through towns, the country, and steep mountain roads...

Major League Baseball began its 2017 regular season this past weekend...and I'm already bored.  This despite one of "my" teams, Tampa Bay, taking it to the Yankees 7-3.  I wrote earlier that I preferred to watch team sports, but maybe baseball...already very slow-moving without the even more complicating factor of instant replay review...may turn out to be a sport I tend to avoid.  Then again, sometimes I enjoy sitting back and watching a game...especially when there isn't anything else on the boob tube...

In soccer, I'm following the English Premier League, Mexico's Liga MX, Germany's Bundesliga, and the North American top pro league, Major League Soccer. Of these four, I clearly prefer English league soccer...the combination of its high standard of play with league parity makes their matches a joy to watch.  Contrast this with MLS, where the players seem to often have difficulty connecting on simple passes.  Still, come summertime MLS will be the only league left in season...

Just Finished Reading Endymion by Dan Simmons

Dan Simmons is beginning to become one of my favorite writers.  I read his standalone novel Drood, which is a historical drama featuring Charles Dickens, and have now just finished the third book in his four-part science fiction Hyperion Cantos series, titled Endymion.  This series was published back in the 1990s...it pains me a little to say "back in" to refer to that decade, which part of me still somehow sees as lying in the future (I was born in 1956).  But I digress...

It wasn't always so, but in recent years if one wants to be seen as a serious, competent science fiction writer, he or she had better display a pretty serious competency in science and technology...and in detail.  Alas, the days of Ray Bradbury and others successfully bluffing their way through stories pretending knowledge that they did not have are over, but at least with Dan Simmons, there is no cause for concern: this guy, if he is bluffing about his scientific prowess, then he sure as heck fooled me.  As a matter of fact, there has been so much futuristic science and technology info injected into this series...especially the first two books...that at times I felt like screaming at the author "OK, you win...now can we please just go forward with the story?"...but then again, these are the times we live in: had Simmons done as I wished, the veteran sci-fi readers out there probably would have crucified him for it.  In any case, book number three, titled Endymion, finally got down to a reasonable narrative with a stable cast of characters I could follow...I guess by that time Simmons felt he had already proven what a hotshot scientific dude he was...

As is the case with other series, Dan Simmons has created his own future universe with humanity branching off into two groups: the Ousters...the first wave to settle space and which adapted themselves to their new homes, and the Hegemonists...people who transplanted their own cultures to different worlds and terraformed them to their own tastes.  These two groups were at war with one another, and the Hegemonists were heavily dependent on highly advanced artificial intelligence with its own consciousness...an idea later adopted in the Matrix movie series...which provided them with "farcasters": portals through which people could instantaneously travel from one world to another.  The first two books dealt with the fate of the Hegemonists, the Technocore...as that artificial intelligence was collectively called...and those farcasters.  Endymion begins nearly three hundred years after the end of the previous book...but once again we're back on the "outback" planet of Hyperion, featured in books one and two, but with a new force of humanity to reckon with: the Pax...

The problem with describing the setting and situation of the third book of a series that is cumulative in nature...i.e. everything depends directly on what happened in the preceding two volumes...is that just about any effort I make in that regard is bound to spoil the stories revealed in those early books...so I'll refrain from doing so.  After all, I think this is a very good, modern science fiction series and would recommend anyone interested in this genre to invest some time reading it.  I was especially gratified by the compelling, diverse, and memorable characters...from the pilgrims to Hyperion to the Hegemony CEO to the Keats cybrids to Endymion's Raul, Aenea, Bettik, and Father de Soya.  Brilliant character development, but that's what I've grown to expect from great writers...as a matter of fact, it's not their expertise within whatever genre they are writing in but how they make the people in them seem real and invite an empathetic response from the reader that gives them that greatness.  Besides the characters and the plot in Hyperion Cantos, there is also a good amount of deep philosophical discussion going on...as well as some pretty intense poetry!  I guess by all this you can see that Dan Simmons has won me over...that's good, because he's written quite a few other books by now for me to read.  But for the time being, I'm starting on the final book of this series, titled Rise of Endymion...

My March 2017 Running Report

In March I went through different stages with my running.  At the beginning I was recovering from the eventful Five Points of Life half-marathon I ran on February 26; feeling some aching in my left knee, I lightened up and took a couple of days off from the activity.  Then I ran the 10K (6.2 miles) Run for Haven race on Saturday afternoon, March 11, in (and west of ) the town of Tioga...I pushed myself to maintain a good pace with that run and was satisfied with the result.  Then, as March wound down I considered running a 10K trail race in Paynes Prairie but decided to bow out due to upper respiratory seasonal allergy issues...I'm now aggressively working to alleviate those symptoms.  Then, a few days ago that knee ache began ever-so-slightly...but not wanting to take any chances, I rested from running a couple more days...

For the month, I ran a total of 98 miles, that 6.2 Run for Haven distance being my longest single run.  I ran on 27 of March's 31 days, filling in the rest days with some bicycling.  I'm beginning to wonder whether I'm wearing the right type of running shoes and that perhaps a lighter pair might be more suitable.  In April, the main race I see ahead of me is the Run the Good Race 10K/5K run/walk here in Gainesville, proceeds from which are to benefit Iraqi and Syrian refugees through World Help.  A good cause to support...and the only 10K event in April, at least in my home county of Alachua.  There are plenty of 5K races available this month as well, but after that 10K I plan to enter, I may just wait until May for the next one and instead focus on training smartly...

Quote of the Week...from Stephen King

If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot. There's no way around these two things that I'm aware of, no shortcut.      ---Stephen King.

I've read more Stephen King books over the years that those of any other author...he's by far my favorite writer of this era.  One of his books that impressed me...it was one of his few nonfiction works...was On Writing, a semi-autobiographical book that went into what it takes to write successfully.  King was frank: you have to have the knack for it...like many other fields, innate talent does play an important role.  But one can have all the talent in the world for any area, and if they don't arduously apply it by working hard to develop that talent, then they're not going to go anywhere with it.  With writing, King stresses spending about an equal amount of time...at least four hours a day each...between reading others' works and actually engaging in writing.  And writing talent won't develop on its own...one has to write, write, write...and then write some more...

Seeing that I work full-time at my job and can't realistically see myself putting in eight daily hours of reading and writing...at least not until retirement day eventually comes around...I'm going to need to fudge a bit on Stephen King's minimum standard for developing whatever writing talent I have.  Although it may seem to a reader of this blog that I read a lot...and I do compared to most folks...it's still less than I would like.  And my writing?  Other than this blog, the articles for which I usually whip up in 30-40 minutes while sipping my iced coffee at Starbucks (where I'm at now) or McDonald's, I haven't been writing...so between the two King-recommended regimens of reading and writing, my great, glaring need is to write more.  And to begin to write fiction.  Fortunately for me, I've been at work on this blog coming up on ten years in about a week, and I've consciously, deliberately made it available worldwide...and in the past four years have linked it to Facebook so that people who know me could read it, too.  So I shouldn't feel too self-conscious about publishing my first fictional stories.  Except that, right now, I do.  Well, the only remedy I see for that is to shift into turbo with my writing...
 

3/26 Sermon on Prodigals, Part 2

The sermon series at The Family Church here in Gainesville about prodigals, based on Luke 15:11-32 in the Bible's New Testament (click on this Bible Gateway link to access it), continued this past Sunday as Pastor Philip Griffin discussed the role of the father in this story from Jesus.  The father felt great love for his rebellious son, who took his share of the inheritance, abandoned his family, and squandered everything while living in sin abroad.  And how did the father express his love?

As Pastor Philip explained, the father expressed his love for his son in a number of ways.  First, he did not try to restrain or rescue him.  And when the son repented and returned, he accepted, not rejected, him and fully welcomed him back into the family.  As for "rescuing", our pastor listed seven ways that we sometimes enable...as codependents...the prodigals in our lives for their behavior: protecting them from the consequences of that behavior, keeping their behavior secret, making excuses for them, bailing them out of trouble, blaming others for their behavior, making threats without following through, and doing for others what they should be doing for themselves.  He also pointed out that the person we love but whose behavior we hate has a greater need than a relationship with us: their wholeness and maturity...which is God's goal for them.  And that maturity may well necessitate them going through hardships.  As for not rejecting them when they return, a good dose of grace and forgiveness can set all of us free...

So the returning son received his father's love in the end, but there was another son, too. Pastor Philip mentioned the other, dutiful son who didn't abandon his father but rather stayed behind and toiled for him.  He did not have that God-given grace to forgive his brother and harshly judged his father for his celebration instead of joining him.  It is this prodigal of a different kind...prideful and self-righteous...who will be the topic for next week's message...

If you're interested in viewing Pastor Philip Griffin's message I've just summarized...or maybe others from weeks earlier...you can do so through the following link to the church's YouTube video website: [link].  The Family Church, located at 2022 SW 122nd Street, holds its Sunday morning services at 9:30 and 11.  Besides the thought-provoking messages, there is uplifting praise music as well as an opportunity join discipleship groups.  I've particularly enjoyed this current series on prodigals and think that next week's talk on the "other" prodigal son is certain to speak to my heart as well as...hopefully...many others...

Springtime Quickly Shifting to Summer In North Florida

After this past almost nonexistent winter that officially ended a week ago, the weather here in northern Florida is quickly shifting into summertime mode.  Right now at 2 pm it's 85 degrees outside with temperatures expected to climb another 3 to 5 degrees.  So now, it's not quite yet "summer" weather, as summer here usually entails highs in the mid-90s...and I have to admit, it's quite pleasant sitting outside here at my favorite Gainesville Starbucks about to start in on my caramel iced coffee that I've gotten into the habit of buying.  So what's there to talk about?

Well, I've been watching C-Span2, which broadcasts the floor proceedings of the U.S. Senate.  From time to time today senators from both parties have taken the floor to discuss the nomination of Neil Gorsuch to the U.S. Supreme Court.  The Republicans invariably bring up the Senate's constitutionally-mandated role of advise and consent and criticize the Democrats' threatened filibuster to prevent a final vote as "unprecedented" in the country's history for Supreme Court confirmations.  The Democrats, for their part, remind the Republicans that in 2016 they had a constitutionally-mandated role of advise and consent when then-President Obama selected Merrick Garland for the very same seat that Gorsuch is now being considered for and reneged on that duty...incidentally unprecedented in the country's history for Supreme Court confirmations.  But all of this verbal tennis aside, the Democrats in the end don't have the votes to prevent Gorsuch from being confirmed to the Court...if a filibuster starts to take hold, the Republicans are certain to change the Senate rules to allow only 51 votes...a simple majority...for ending debate and to hold that final vote....

Late last night at home after work...as I was getting sleepier and sleepier...they were showing a replay of the incredible comeback that Barcelona staged in the UEFA Champions League quarterfinal round against Paris-St. Germain (aka PSG).  In the first of the two-match series, the total sum of goals determining which team advances, PSG had won 4-0, making it seem near-to-impossible for Barcelona to come back.  But in the second game, I already knew that they did just that, winning it 6-1 to win the aggregate total 6-5 and advance over PSG.  So I wanted to see just how they accomplished this near-miraculous comeback and caught the game just at the end of the first half, which they were leading 2-0.  As I struggled to remain conscious, Barcelona did come back but PSG still had a 5-3 two-game goal lead with only about 15 minutes remaining.  Then I briefly dozed off and woke up, only to find the Barcelona players celebrating their win...oh well, I guess I'll be able to see the ending sometime on YouTube...

For the last few days I haven't been running in order to clear up an occasional ache I've been experiencing in my left knee.  It's nothing severe, but I don't want it to worsen, so I'm riding the bike in the meantime.  On April 8, Gainesville will be holding a 5K/10K walk/run to benefit war refugees and I want to participate in the 10K event.  I should be ready by that time...

Now, back to the summer-like heat...and I think I'm just about ready for a refill on my iced coffee...

Just Finished Reading Benjamin Percy's Red Moon

I discovered the 2013 novel Red Moon by Benjamin Percy through a common practice of mine: randomly browsing my local public library's shelves.  Without any sort of recommendation other than the conviction that the book wasn't a part of a greater series, I read it through...and now I'm ready with my reactions...

Red Moon is an alternative history dystopian novel, set in the present time.  What distinguishes it from a story set in our real world is the existence of werewolves...designated here as "lycans"...an underclass in society, a few members of which are radicalized and practice terrorism...the connection between them and "our" world's Muslim population with their radicalized violent fringe becomes pretty obvious soon after beginning the story.  And yes, there is a "lycan" nation overseas...this one being far north (in wolf country, of course), bordering Russia...and surprise, surprise, the Americans are engaged there in a long-term war of occupation and nation-building and...conveniently extracting its valued natural resource, not oil...but uranium.  Further complicating the picture is that it an infection of prions that causes one to become a lycan...an infection for which there is no vaccine, although those so infected can have their symptoms blocked through medication.  Since lycans over the years have suffered discrimination and persecution, their situation is regarded by many as less a medical/health issue and more one of civil rights.  All of these "facts" are presented during the early chapters of Red Moon...

I liked the sympathetic protagonists Patrick and Claire, both young people with the latter being a lycan.  Through their trials they cross paths as well as the barriers that society has placed between them to form first an alliance and then a friendship.  No, I'm not going to go into detail about what actually happens to them in their world...I'll leave that to you, the prospective reader...but I do want to make a few incidental observations...

First, if you are from the Pacific northwest, especially the state of Oregon, then Red Moon might make you feel a little at home since the story primarily takes place there...that's not surprising since Oregon is where the author lives.  Also, one chilling, prescient element in the story is the presence of a blabbermouth businessman who discovers a political following for him as he goes about making speeches against lycans and in favor of protecting our borders and citizens from them...and he decides to run for president.  This from 2013, two years before our current commander-in-chief began his own blustering path to the Oval Office.  And finally, there is a structural problem I had with the story.  Benjamin Percy takes various characters who are relatively insignificant and then improbably, coincidentally puts them together at different points in the story to change the course of history.  I had the feeling at times that the author was writing backward from his ending and that he had his entire novel outlined in advance...but that's just my impression and I could be totally wrong about that.  But I also recognize, admire, and respect...as I usually do when reading a literary work...his skillful writing craftsmanship...

So I recommend Benjamin Percy's Red Moon, the faults I find with it notwithstanding.  If for no other reason, this story is likely to get people talking about the issues it addresses...

Gators Lose, Final Four in NCAA Hoops Set

After my euphoric blog entry Saturday following the University of Florida men's basketball team's improbable last-second winning three-pointer in the NCAA Division I tournament, things have abruptly come back to earth with their loss in the Elite Eight game against South Carolina yesterday afternoon.  The Gators fell, for the most part, because of a problem they've experienced before: they simply couldn't make their shots.  After going 7 for 12 with their three-point shots in the first half, they were sunk in the second when they went 0 for 14 from that range...hard to win with those stats.  Still, I'm proud of them for having gotten this far.  Looking forward to next year!

On Saturday, Pacific states schools Gonzaga and Oregon won their respective games against upstart Xavier and heavily-favored Kansas, respectively.  I was very surprised by the Jayhawks' letdown after their very impressive performances so far in the tournament...I had expected them to go all the way to the championship.  Just goes to show you that one game is no reliable predictor of the next.  After Florida's 77-70 defeat to South Carolina, I was looking forward to some redemption from the second game on Sunday when North Carolina, a school I've been supporting in basketball for decades, faced Kentucky, which I've been opposing a long time.  It was an exciting contest reminiscent of the Florida/Wisconsin game on Friday...the Tarheels made a last-second jump shot to break a tie, sending Kentucky packing home and themselves to Phoenix.  So in this 2017 edition of the Final Four, we have two regional number one seeds...Gonzaga and North Carolina, a regional number three seed in Oregon, and number seven seed South Carolina.  North Carolina is the only school experienced at this stage in the tournament, but I don't think past records matter any more.  I don't know who will win it all...I can only say that I'm rooting for the Tarheels and that I'm indifferent about the rest of the field.  So hopefully NC will get past Oregon on Saturday to make next Monday's championship game interesting for me...

...Oh, by the way, my congratulations to the women's basketball team from Mississippi State for winning their overtime game against Baylor, which I watched yesterday on ESPN.  They were amazing...now they're in their tournament's Final Four!  Guess who I'm rooting for in that series...

Corporations...and People

In the controversial 2010 Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission United States Supreme Court decision, the Court's majority decided with the plaintiff and in so doing, overturned more than a century of precedent law that distinguishes corporations from individuals when it comes to the expression of speech.  Justice Anthony Kennedy, in his majority opinion, justified his position by stating that associations of people were just as protected by the First Amendment as were individuals and offered his own precedents for this view...opening the way for just about any shadow organization to now anonymously funnel millions of dollars into political advertising for targeted elections...thus in the eyes of the decision's critics, unduly influencing...even corrupting...the election process.  What I think is important here is the equating...in the minds of the conservative justices rendering the majority decision...of corporations with individual people...

That was 2010...fast forward to now, in early 2017.  The Trump administration says it wants to reform our tax code, in great part because the American corporate tax rate, at 38% when including average state and local corporate taxes, is the highest in the world and discourages our businesses from remaining here and encourages them to relocate abroad.  But liberal critics of any plan to lower the corporate tax rate to bring it more in line with other countries like Canada, the United Kingdom, or Germany...all of which have drastically lower corporate rates...invariably refer to this endeavor as trying to give tax breaks to rich people.  About which they're right, in a meaningful way, but in making this argument these liberals are in essence doing what they complain that the conservative justices did in Citizens United: equating corporations with individual people...

Of course, a corporation is not a person...else they'd be allowed to vote as well as run for public office.  Justice Stevens, in his dissenting opinion in Citizens United, emphasized the important longstanding legal separations between corporations and humans while also questioning the rationale of exactly who it is that a corporation is "speaking" for: its shareholders, CEOs...who?  And I'll add: if the shareholders are not American citizens, then does a corporation's "free speech", through its political spending, pose the danger of foreign interference in our elections?   Well, I guess you can see that a whole can of worms has been opened up with the decision from seven years back...but it would also behoove those arguing against our new president's tax goals to clearly distinguish between corporate and individual tax rates when making those arguments...

Gators Fall Forward Into the Elite Eight

Whether it was a viral attack or simply the pollen allergy season hitting me, I found myself last night in the throes of coughing fits and upper respiratory congestion... and consequently sadly but wisely decided to forego getting up early this morning to run a 10K race in the middle of the alligator-friendly, soggy wilderness they call Paynes Prairie.  Instead I slept in...hooray, I feel a lot better now!  I went to one of the last two surviving Radio Shacks here in Gainesville to pick up a cheap MP3 player, only to discover that (1) they didn't have any more MP3s and (2) they are closing down in nine days.  Sorry to hear that...Radio Shack's always been a fun place for me to browse through, and I've bought quite a bit of stuff there over the years.  Anyway, between last night and this morning word has spread throughout Gainesville and beyond of late last night and the miracle three-point buzzer-beating shot of junior Florida Gator guard Chris Chiozza...as he was falling forward...that gave them a thrilling 84-83 overtime victory over Wisconsin and advances them to play South Carolina (for the third time this year) in the Elite Eight game tomorrow.  It was funny to hear the sports commentators on TV talking about how Florida and Wisconsin...after all the previous games in the tournament...had finally put on a show worthy of the hyped-up excitement of "March Madness".  As if either team actually wanted to have their contest so painfully drawn out the way it was, just to be considered worthy enough for others to watch!  Actually, until last night I felt that Florida had been unfairly slighted and ignored by the national sports media...we're talking about a team devoid of superstars and coached by someone in only his second year with the school...a team with a losing record two years ago and which settled for going to the NIT last year!  Regardless what happens tomorrow between the Gamecocks and Gators, it has already been a great season for Florida basketball...

I was tempted to wait until the Final Four lineup was set before writing my "basketball" article, but I think this weekend's games promise some interesting basketball to discuss.  This is the schedule, for the next round, which will determine each region's champion and the Final Four field:

Saturday (today):
West Region
Xavier vs. Gonzaga, 6:09 pm, site: San Jose
Midwest Region
Kansas vs. Oregon, 8:49 pm, site: Kansas City

Sunday
East Region
Florida vs. South Carolina, 2:20 pm, site: New York
South Region
Kentucky vs. North Carolina, 5:05 pm, site: Memphis

Today's games...according to the NCAA website, will be shown on TBS and tomorrow's are on CBS...but knowing how television programming can suddenly change, I wouldn't bet my house on that information.  As for the Final Four, should Florida get by South Carolina...and they split their regular season games...they will have the advantage of playing the Xavier/Gonzaga winner in the first game, on Saturday.  I'm glad about that because I'd like to see the Gators get to the championship game and Kansas is so hot right now I don't know whether anybody can stop them. As for which teams I want to win...disregarding their real chances...I'd like to see Florida, Xavier, Oregon, and North Carolina make it to the Final Four...fat chance of all that happening, though.  Anyway, the Final Four games are to be held in Phoenix, Arizona on Saturday, March 31 and Monday, April 2.  The Saturday games will pair up the East/West and South/Midwest winners.  May the best team win...unless it's the Gators, and may they win even if they're not the best team!
  

Quote of the Week...from Henry David Thoreau

The universe is wider than our views of it.                 ---Henry David Thoreau.

Henry David Thoreau was a nineteenth century American writer famous for authoring Walden.  He's also known for a number of quotes...the one at the head of this article resonated with me. In essence, he's saying here that as humans we tend to oversimplify reality, and even our greatest scientific accomplishments are only abstractions at best.  But also, many of us fall prey to worldviews and ideologies that order the universe...especially that regarding society and its institutions...according to a set number of rules we often confuse with objective truth without recognizing their limitations.  Take, for example, radio talk show host Mark Levin, someone I've grown accustomed to listening to on weeknights.  He calls himself a "constitutional conservative" and has written a number of books espousing his ideology.  But Levin, while entertaining and independent-minded, has a rigidity to his political philosophy...should a caller to his show define conservatism...even favorably...in any terms other than Levin's own "definition", he'll fly off the handle and begin to angrily berate them...often suggesting that they have no right to their opinion since they haven't read his books...

Or take this nominee for the United States Supreme Court, Neil Gorsuch.  He has his own system for deciding cases on the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.  In exploring how a specific law applies to the plaintiff and defendant in a particular case, he makes no effort to explore the underlying intent that the lawmakers had in designing and passing it, instead just taking the text on its own terms...and then using his Oxford English dictionary to read the definitions of different words in the written law that best suit him.  This has resulted in some strange past rulings of his that have come out in the Senate confirmation hearings lately...including one that the current Supreme Court just unanimously overturned...

Look, we have to make some order and sense out of the chaotic universe that surrounds us...we would otherwise be unable to function.  But let's not get carried away with ourselves and instead recognize our own man-made rules and explanations for what they are: merely tools and not reality itself.  And if someone else has a different way of interpreting things, it's O.K. to respect them for that while remaining secure in our own outlook.  On the other hand, if you're a federal judge with the enormous responsibility that job has regarding others' lives, then the people appearing before you depend on you seeing their case from more than one self-imposed, narrow perspective...
   

3/19 Sermon on Prodigals, Part 1

The new message series at The Family Church here in Gainesville that Pastor Philip Griffin began last Sunday is about Jesus' parable of the prodigal son, appearing in the New Testament book of  Luke 15:11-32...here is a link to the passage for this sermon, in the New International Version via the Bible Gateway website: [link]...

In introducing his message, Pastor Philip made two points: one, the term "prodigal" means wasteful and squandering...and two, what is commonly referred to as the "parable of the prodigal son"...which I myself just used...is actually about two prodigal sons, each meeting that description in a different way.  Most who are familiar with this story know of the irresponsible, selfish son who demands his father give him his portion of his inheritance up front and then squanders it all in a distant land on prostitutes, ultimately finding himself destitute, left to feed pigs while he himself is starving.  He then decides to repent of his ways and returns to his father, willing to be taken back not as a son, but as a servant.  But the father sees him from far off and rejoices that his son, once lost, is now found...and stages a big party for him.  The older brother, who had dutifully stayed with his father, takes offense at this type of greeting...feeling slighted and unjustly treated while prideful at his own righteousness behavior...

Last Sunday's message focused on the rebellious son in this story from Jesus.  Pastor Philip unraveled the process through which this prodigal son rejected his father...in fact treating him as "dead" by demanding his inheritance, rebelled against his father's ways...in the opinion of the pastor, probably alienating him from the local population and necessitating him moving far away, finally reaching an all-time low, responding to that bottoming-out by repenting, and then receiving forgiveness and restoration from his father.  Not only does this all conform pretty closely to the sermon notes I have in front of me, but as Pastor Philip pointed out, it is also a picture of the salvation process we have through Jesus...the father represents God, the party he throws is his kingdom in heaven, and the prodigal is...actually, each of us...

As this series continues over the next couple of weeks, the focus will shift to the father and then that "dutiful" prodigal son.  You can view Pastor Philip's message, as well as many others from previous weeks, by getting on The Family Church YouTube video website, which you can access with the following link: [link].  The Family Church holds its Sunday morning services at 9:30 and 11 and is located at 2022 SW 122 Street...

Star NBA Players Sitting Out Regular Season Games

Having had my fill for a little while of the Senate confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch...and straying from the ongoing headline news story about today's terrorist attack on London, I checked in to ESPN and heard Stephen A. Smith and his interchangeable cohort go off against each other about National Basketball Association star players being given "off days" by their respective coaches and sitting out entire games...even those advertised by major networks for show on TV.  It's gotten so bad now that sometimes almost the entire starting lineup won't play...in essence forfeiting that game and, in my opinion, cheating the paying fans the opportunity to see the high caliber of basketball that they shelled out their money for.  The rationale for a lot of this off-time is that the season is too long and that too many games are played back-to-back...with this train of thought goes concern for the players' health.  And after all, it's the playoffs and not the regular season that counts, right? 

If the 82-game NBA regular season is only there to establish eligibility for the playoffs and create a seeding system for the 16 teams that make it, and everyone's so concerned about the players' health...then why not reduce the number of games, then?  Do we really need that many games...or is the sport instead way too greedy?  I suspect the latter is the real reason for the status quo in pro basketball here.  If you can take around 200 teams in college basketball and devise a 64-team tournament that few events in sports can challenge for its mass popularity...and accomplish this after most teams have played regular seasons of only 24-27 games, it seems to me...unless of course money is the only thing they're interested in...that the NBA playoffs could be lined up after a regular season of, say...around 50 games.  That would still be about twice the number as the college version, and think of all the "off"-time that the big-shot multi-millionaire stars would be enjoying.  On the other hand, if the regular season has to be kept at 82 games, then why have playoffs at all?

Why not have the teams in the league play each other the same number of games and let the team with the best record be crowned champion...or let the playoffs be limited to a championship series between the two conferences' regular season champions?  Overseas professional soccer leagues don't use playoffs to determine their champions and they are still wildly popular over there.  This way, the games themselves would count and you wouldn't see all these games with starters on the sidelines throughout.   And also, let the worst finishers in the league be relegated to a lower-status league in order to reduce the incidence of teams...such as reputedly the 76ers...flopping in order to achieve a high draft status for the next season...

But the bottom line here is that, if the coaches and star players themselves don't value the regular season, then why should I or any other fan?  When I tune in to a game like the other night and see a whole row of perfectly healthy, monumentally-paid starters sitting back on the sidelines joking around with one another while their team on the court is losing by 25 points, then I would say we've got a problem here...

The Overrated Small Group Circle

I'm not sure that this article is one based on principle as much as it is my feelings about a certain subject: how people are seated when in small groups.  I've noticed over the years in school, church, and the workplace that often the individual in charge of conducting the small group I am attending will insist on drawing up chairs in a circle, with everyone directly facing each other.  This is supposedly meant to engage everyone in the group...but I find it produces the opposite effect with me.  I find myself instinctively looking away from the others in the group while feeling defensive about them watching me...instead of focusing on whatever was the reason for the group in the first place.  If I happen to be a little out of sorts...be it sleepy, anxious, or displaying the numerous symptoms of my seasonal respiratory allergies...it all becomes readily apparent to all...call me self-conscious in that regard.  I also believe that many who insist on conducting small groups in circles do it precisely to make the participants uncomfortable...this enhances their power within the group to manipulate the others.  And also, the circle format creates the impression, accurate or not, that one's own opinions about a particular matter are subservient to those of the group...or should I say, those of the loudest and most dominant of the group...

I say all this because I recently heard someone ridicule the idea of people in a meeting sitting in rows and that they should instead be gathered in a circle.  I don't think folks need to follow either model...as long as we are within a reasonable proximity of each other, we should be able to sit facing whatever direction we want...as long as our backs aren't to everyone else...and in different places that make us feel the most comfortable.  But I'll repeat my earlier sentiment, and you cannot refute me because it is how I deeply feel: small groups in circles are worthless and counterproductive as far as what I get out of them, and they serve to worsen instead of strengthening my connection with the people involved...I consequently tend to avoid situations where they are mandated. There, I said it...

What's Up for Me this Week? Don't Know Yet...

The coming week in my life contains some variables, the outcomes of which will determine what I do.  I may end up spending some time at the beach or run a 10K (6.2-mile) trail race...or both...or neither.  What I end up doing should be cleared up, though, within a few hours...

The beach is always calling me, and whenever an opportunity arises for both Melissa and I to get to go there, then we have to seriously consider it.  Maybe I'll get to go and maybe I won't.  But if it's not in the cards to go there this week, then there is a cool-sounding trail running race held annually in Paynes Prairie, just south of Gainesville. Called the Trail of Payne, it's become an annual tradition...yet I've never gotten around to running in it.  Being a trail race, the surfaces are varied and things can even get a bit muddy...and I'm wondering about those alligators, too.  Should Saturday morning end up clear on my calendar with me still here in Gainesville, I have half a mind to go down there and try it out...

Regardless of where this week leads me, I'm resolved to make the best of it and have a good time...

Senate Confirmation Hearings for Neil Gorsuch Begin Tomorrow

At 11:00 tomorrow morning (Monday, March 20th), the United States Senate Judiciary Committee is slated to begin its hearings on Neil Gorsuch, President Trump's pick to replace the late Antonin Scalia on the United States Supreme Court as an associate justice.  Gorsuch has served ten years as a federal appeals judge in the 10th Circuit, having been nominated for the position by then-President George W. Bush and approved on the Senate floor by voice vote.  By all standards, including those of the American Bar Association, he seems very qualified for the post he is nominated for. His judicial philosophy is to interpret the Constitution as he believes it was originally intended and to strictly interpret laws according to their text, putting him squarely in the corner of conservative judges like Scalia.  Because of this, he is bound to be seriously grilled during the hearings by the nine Democrats on the committee, with his more controversial decisions from the 240 he has made so far certain to receive scrutiny and criticism.  I imagine Gorsuch will be able to catch his breath, though, whenever the eleven Republicans are questioning him, doubtless raining accolades down on him and feeding him softball questions...

Monday's hearing will feature Judge Gorsuch in attendance, but other than the nominee possibly saying something later that day, the rest of the time will be devoted to the committee members making their own speeches and setting the tone for the hearings.  Tuesday will feature Gorsuch in the "hot seat" as the senators take turns asking him about his record, past statements, and judicial philosophy.  Committee chairman Grassley wants Gorsuch's testimony to be only a one-day affair, but it may spill over into a second.  The last day will be devoted to others' testimonies about how good or bad a job they feel he will do on the Supreme Court...and then the committee will vote to pass on the nomination to the Senate floor.  Then it will be a question as to whether the Democrats can muster up enough votes to filibuster the final debate...if they succeed, in all probability Majority Leader McConnell will change the Senate rules to end debate with a simple majority...the so-called "nuclear option"...in order to hold the final confirmation vote.  Regardless, unless something nobody knows about Gorsuch comes out, it is a near certainty that he will be confirmed and sworn in as the next U.S. Supreme Court justice...

I personally do not have a problem with a conservative president appointing and having confirmed a qualified conservative to the Supreme Court.  What I do have a problem with is when a liberal president makes his own selection to the high court and has it stonewalled and rejected out of hand by the opposition-controlled Senate, without even the courtesy of a hearing given the nominee.  This vacancy, caused by Justice Scalia's death more than a year ago, was Barack Obama's to fill.  He made overtures to McConnell and Grassley in order to come up with a candidate more acceptable to them, but they refused to honor their Constitutionally-mandated role of advice and consent.  The President nominated Merrick Garland, by no means a liberal but neither a dyed-in-the-wool conservative.  In my opinion there is something illegitimate about next week's hearings for Neil Gorsuch, as Garland should already have been serving in the Supreme Court for several months by now. That having been said, it isn't Neil Gorsuch who is at fault here and, so far, I have a favorable opinion of him...

The 2017 NCAA Basketball Tourney As I See It

Having been at work during the first round of the 2016-17 NCAA Men's Basketball Championship Tournament on Thursday and Friday, I've already missed more than half the tournament's 63 total games...not that I would have watched them all had I had the chance.  But here I am on Saturday afternoon and the second round is now underway to pare the field of teams down from 32 to 16.  Earlier I watched Notre Dame bow to West Virginia in the day's first contest...and now defending champion Villanova just got upset by 8th seed Wisconsin...no repeat champions this year!  Later today in Orlando, Florida State will play Xavier and then the University of Florida will face Virgina...the Seminoles should advance but "my" Gators are pretty evenly matched against their ACC opponent...good luck to both my home state's teams!  I was disappointed that  Miami (badly) lost their game yesterday and is out of the tournament.  I traditionally support North Carolina, and the Tarheels are seeded number one in their region...they will play Arkansas early tomorrow evening to try to advance.  As for which team I think will eventually win it all...well, I have a feeling that Kansas may be the one to put it all together this time around.  But after mentioning this to a co-worker who is also a sports fan, he suggested that Arizona should be considered, too.  Then, there are also Gonzaga, Duke, UCLA, Oregon, Kentucky, and so on...

Now that Villanova has been eliminated, that makes 25 years now during which only one school has managed to put together back-to-back NCAA Men's Division One Basketball championships: the University of Florida (my alma mater) who pulled it off in 2005-06 and 2006-07.  This year's edition of the Fightin' Gators isn't quite as star-studded as that earlier group, which included future NBA players Al Horford, Joakim Noah, and Corey Brewer, but it works very cohesively as a unit under second-year head coach Mike White.  Unfortunately, their starting center John Egbunu suffered a season-ending injury a month ago and they have been struggling to fill in the gap caused by his absence.  But if they can shoot well in their game against Virginia, Florida should be in a good position to win and then be competitive against the next opponent: those impressive Wisconsin Badgers who put just put away the defending champs.  Now please excuse me while I get ready for the next game...

Quote of the Week...from James Joyce

Mistakes are the portals of discovery.        ---James Joyce
 
James Joyce was an Irish author of the previous century, considered by some to be the greatest writer of English literature since Shakespeare.  Not having read his works, I couldn't say whether I agree or not...besides, I'm not that big a fan of Shakespeare, anyway.  I do know that Joyce was well known for writing fiction with language very difficult to understand for its complexity...and his book Finnegans Wake is a unintelligible morass of cryptic, disconnected phrases with numerous sojourns into other languages.  So I was tempted to use the following quote of Joyce instead on this St. Patrick's Day: I've put in so many enigmas and puzzles that it will keep the professors busy for centuries arguing over what I meant, and that's the only way of insuring one's immortality.  But hey, I already knew of this successful strategy of writing with popular songwriters like Beck or R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe...

As for the above quote that I did use, I think that few things could be more true.  We do learn from our mistakes...the trick is to keep them from being fatal, debilitating, or harmful to others.  One of the problems I had with the way things were structured during my school years was how mistakes were consistently used to judge whether a student was "good" or "bad".  The fewer mistakes you made meant that you got a higher grade and more meant you were headed for trouble.  Now supposedly homework and in-class assignments were supposed to bring out mistakes so that students could learn from them and they could then do well on quizzes and tests...but if these learning assignments were also graded and recorded by how many mistakes they contained, then the student was discouraged from this important learning experience and would be more defensive about how he or she performed them...

In a broader sense, in our lives we're all making mistakes left and right.  It's better to already know that doing or saying a particular thing is going to backfire and never try it.  And sometimes behavior that is counterproductive or even harmful will go unchecked until the habit is well entrenched and the consequences happen later on down the line.   Better that a mistake is exposed as early as possible and corrected.  But in a more creative sense...and here is where James Joyce might have been going with this quote...mistakes can often lead one to reconsider where they are going and to either change their direction, reevaluate what they are doing and why, or to discover a better solution to their situation...one that opens up new opportunities heretofore hidden from them...