Quote of the Week...from Viggo Mortensen

There's no excuse to be bored. Sad, yes. Angry, yes. Depressed, yes. Crazy, yes. But there's no excuse for boredom, ever.                                          ---Viggo Mortensen

Viggo Mortensen is the actor, in case you didn't know it, who so brilliantly played the character of Aragorn, or "Strider", in the wonderful film adaptation to J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings a few years ago.  I don't know much about him or his opinions...I haven't even seen him in any other movies...but this quote of his I just found happens to strongly resonate with me. And you know what?  It's the kind of thing I would have expected Strider to say...

I was doing some Internet research on the word "excuse" being used in quotes.  Most of them seemed to tie in the making of excuses with being a failure...sorry, but I'm not totally convinced of this "lift yourself by your own bootstraps" pop philosophy.  There are many factors that can impede people from living the kinds of fulfilling lives they would like to, including disabilities, persecution because of race, gender, physical appearance, religion, having to grow up in an abusive family and/or in extreme poverty or in violent environments, and so on.  If folks are just supposed to shrug off their own negative experiences and plow on, then that sounds to me as if the many problems plaguing human society will never be adequately addressed and solved.  On the other hand, in order to function as an independent adult, one must come to the conclusion that, legitimate excuses notwithstanding, they can still make choices to improve their lives and those of whom they love.  But as Viggo stated, whenever I hear someone come out with the plaintive whine "I'm bored", I wonder what the heck is wrong with them...

There is so much of interest in this limited time that we are accorded in our mortal lives that it simply astounds me that there are people...apparently many, many people...who are incapable of experiencing any wonder at all of the amazing and interesting things around them.  To appropriate a tired old cliché, you don't have to be a rocket scientist to be entranced by space travel, as well as by the wonders in our vast universe.  Look at all the varieties of life on Earth, the different kinds of terrain there are, the different countries and their absorbing histories, the biographies of countless people, the almost endless number of stories...real and fictional...available to us, music in all its forms, and that's just scratching the surface.  No it's absurd to ever be bored...but I think the main reason some like to roll out this lament is that they are so into themselves that the idea of thinking about anything that doesn't directly factor into their own inflated egos is something to be avoided.  So maybe the main cause of this boredom isn't as much a lack of imagination as it is a sense of personal insecurity.  Letting go of oneself for a few minutes and getting into something that doesn't necessarily prop up their self-image apparently is a pretty scary thing for a lot of people, so they end up "bored"...

5/6 Sermon on Daniel, Pt. 5

This past Sunday at the Family Church in Gainesville, senior pastor Philip Griffin continued his series titled Counter Culture about the Old Testament book of Daniel.  The sermon, Am I at the Right Party?, was based on Daniel 5, which you can read through Bible Gateway by clicking on the passage...

Daniel Chapter 5 is about the infamous Belshazzar's Feast and the Writing on the Wall.  King Belshazzar, the final king of Babylon, held a banquet for thousands of his nobles. They drank wine from golden cups taken from the Jerusalem temple...and then proceeded to toast to pagan gods.  God's response? A hand materialized out of thin air and wrote on the wall the words MENE, MENE, TEKEL, PARSIN.  There was a sense of panic in the air, and the king found Daniel, who gave his interpretation, which signaled the end of the Babylonian Empire and its replacement by the Persians...

Pastor Philip connected the events of that night with what is going on in our culture: the party our culture throws celebrates pleasure, power and possessions, and pride.  The possessions Belshazzar brought out, the golden cups looted from the temple, he treated as trophies...we have the tendency to show off our own "trophies" as well.  Then there was that mysterious hand, the "party crasher" as Philip put it: what was written on Belshazzar's wall is also written on ours: MENE: our days, too, are numbered as we all will die, TEKEL: we have all sinned and been found wanting, and PARSIN: everything we have in this world will be divided among others after we're gone.  But our pastor pointed out that there's another kind of party, the one that God throws, which celebrates repentance, humility, and grace: the celebration of salvation through Jesus Christ.  To get a sense of this party, read the following verses from Jesus' Parable of the Prodigal Son: Luke 15:22-25...

You can watch this sermon via the church's website, which uses YouTube...just click on the following link: [TFC Videos]. The Family Church meets each Sunday morning and has the weekly message, praise and worship music, prayer, and opportunities for fellowship and discipleship.  It's a good place to get to know some wonderful people and form friendships...

Weekly Short Story: A Suppliant in Space by Robert Sheckley

A suppliant is defined as someone who makes a humble plea to an authority or power.  Science fiction writer Robert Sheckley's 1973 short story A Suppliant in Space carries this meaning and provides a piercing satire on the state of our contemporary society with regard to doctrinally rigid social mores and militarism.  The inflexible dogmatism is from the world of Ferlang, in a nearby galaxy.  One of its inhabitants, named Detringer, has been convicted and banished to deep space for basically thumbing his nose at his society and acting out in a foolish manner.  He manages somehow to cross the void between his galaxy and ours...and lands on a planet about the same time that humanity's first interstellar expedition...replete with a military team in case they feel they have to destroy somebody...gets there.  And then the fun begins...

The dialogue between Detringer and Earth's bellicose Colonel Ketterman is classic, with the Ferlang exile twisting logic into contortions around the military man.  How it all ends...well, you'd better read it for yourself.  Instead I'd like to point out that the military and war have always been themes of not only our space program, but also of most of the movies we've seen about space exploration.  The race to the moon in the 1960s was an outgrowth of the grim competition in the Cold War between the East and the West for ballistic missile accuracy and range.  No doubt once permanent stations and settlements begin on the moon, Mars, and other worlds, the rumbles of war will never be very far away, sad to say.  Part of me is very enthusiastic about what seems to be America's renewed commitment to manned space travel and exploration...and part of me is anxious about the weapons of war spreading to space, not only creating the possibility of armed conflict there but also casting a threatening shadow over the only planet we currently have to live on, our precious Earth...

I found A Suppliant in Space in the anthology Donald A. Wollheim Presents the 1974 Annual World's Best SF (DAW Books).  It also features Detringer's talkative robot companion, who predates Star Wars' C-3PO by four years...as well as the socially-challenged scientist/civilian commander of the Earth crew. This story is probably in other collections as well...you'll probably get a kick out of it like I did...

Tuesday's List: My Top Three Songs of Various Musical Acts, Pt. 5

Well, seeing that it's Tuesday again I guess I'll continue with this series of listing my personal top three favorite songs from different musical acts.  I know I left out quite a few of the more popular artists, probably some that you like.  For many of these, I may like one or two songs over the course of their careers...but three? Maybe if I were to listen to all of the tracks on all of their albums I'd like more...but I neither have the time nor desire to do this.  The following list breaks down this way: other than the first entry, which I should have included a couple of weeks ago, the artists are generally known from the 1990's up to this day.  My musical interests during the nineties and up through 2002 were mainly in the genre of hard rock...from 2003 onward it changed to alternative rock/indie music...it's been a very long time since I've followed "top 40" pop music.  This list reflects that shift...why not try listening to some of the acts on it you might not have heard?

MELANIE
1 RING THE LIVING BELL
2 LAY DOWN (CANDLES IN THE RAIN)
3 BRAND NEW KEY

THE PRETENDERS
1 MESSAGE OF LOVE
2 MY CITY WAS GONE
3 BACK ON THE CHAIN GANG

THE B-52'S
1 ROAM
2 LEGAL TENDER
3 ROCK LOBSTER

METALLICA
1 SAD BUT TRUE
2 ONE
3 NOTHING ELSE MATTERS

RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE
1 RENEGADES OF FUNK
2 KILLING IN THE NAME
3 BULLS ON PARADE

SUGAR RAY
1 SOMEDAY
2 FLY (with Super Cat)
3 EVERY MORNING

KORN
1 HERE TO STAY
2 MAKE ME BAD
3 GOT THE LIFE

FOO FIGHTERS
1 EVERLONG
2 SOMETHING FROM NOTHING
2 I'LL STICK AROUND

INCUBUS
1 STELLAR
2 DRIVE
3 TALK SHOWS ON MUTE

DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE
1 SOUL MEETS BODY
2 CATH...
3 I WILL POSSESS YOUR HEART

TOOL
1 VICARIOUS
2 SCHISM
3 STINKFIST

SYSTEM OF A DOWN
1 SUGAR
2 ARIELS
3 CHOP SUEY!

COLDPLAY
1 MOSES
2 CLOCKS
3 ADVENTURE OF A LIFETIME

FRANZ FERDINAND
1 TWILIGHT OMENS
2 ELEANOR PUT YOUR BOOTS ON
3 THIS FIRE

THE KILLERS
1 ALL THESE THINGS THAT I'VE DONE
2 THE MAN
3 HUMAN

SUFJAN STEVENS
1 DETROIT, LIFT UP YOUR WEARY HEAD
2 CASIMIR PULASKI DAY
3 JACKSONVILLE

REGINA SPEKTOR
1 US
2 FIREWOOD
3 MAN OF A THOUSAND FACES

ARCADE FIRE
1 NEON BIBLE
2 WINDOWSILL
3 ROCOCO

KASABIAN
1 SWITCHBLADE SMILES
2 REASON IS TREASON
3 TREAT

GORILLAZ
1 TO BINGE
2 STYLO
3 REVOLVING DOORS

METRIC
1 CALCULATION THEME
2 SOFT ROCK STAR
3 LOVE IS A PLACE

ANDREW BIRD
1 FIERY CRASH
2 FITZ AND THE DIZZYSPELLS
3 FAKE PALINDROMES

PJ HARVEY
1 THE WHEEL
2 THE ORANGE MONKEY
3 THE COMMUNITY OF HOPE

THE STROKES
1 12:51
2 REPTILIA
3 THE END HAS NO END

SPOON
1 THE GHOST OF YOU LINGERS
2 MERCHANTS OF SOUL
3 GOODNIGHT LAURA

LINKIN PARK
1 BLACKOUT
2 BLEED IT OUT
3 FAINT

CAGE THE ELEPHANT
1 COME A LITTLE BIT CLOSER
2 SHAKE ME DOWN
3 WHOLE WIDE WORLD

MGMT
1 TIME TO PRETEND
2 KIDS
3 ELECTRIC FEEL

TWENTY ONE PILOTS
1 RIDE
2 HEAVYDIRTYSOUL
3 HEATHENS

Stormy Daniels News Not High on My Priority List

I got up this morning and flicked on the TV news...guess what they were talking about?  The Stormy Daniels affair, Trump lawyers Michael Cohen and Rudy Giuliani and what they said, along with what the president said.  Excuse me, but in the grand scheme of things...who cares?  Years before he ran for president, Trump had a brief affair with this stripper/porn star and had Cohen pay her $130,000 to keep her mouth shut about it.  This rather seedy business nonetheless, at least on the surface, has the appearance of legal propriety.  At first, naturally, the president denied any involvement with Daniels...now the affair seems to be acknowledged by all sides.  But while I'm disappointed that a man with such a low moral compass was elected to be my president...and sadly with the full support of many who claim to hold personal morality and accountability as important traits in their leaders (quite a few of whom took Clinton to task about Monica Lewinsky)...this simply does not merit, in my opinion, continual coverage on the news channels.  Stormy Daniels is not a Russian agent and has nothing whatsoever to do with the much more serious issue of past and potentially future Russian interference in our elections, which should always be front and center stage.  But there are other issues as well that actually affect us in our lives and will determine our future in this country and on this planet...for example, climate change should be getting much, much coverage than the meager amount it gets.  And other issues like firearms regulation (authorized under the Second Amendment) and our national immigration policy only seem to come up whenever there is a shooting spree, demonstrations, or a Trump tweet.  The televised news media seem nowadays only to react to prompts from others instead of proactively investigating in detail the important issues of our day and producing informative and compelling journalism...

Just Finished Reading Warcross by Marie Lu

Marie Lu has already earned a name for herself in the fiction series business with The Young Elites and Legend...I've yet to read either.  She has begun a new one and the first book is titled Warcross.  Warcross is a ten-year old interactive virtual reality video game...some 90% of young adults worldwide are avid players and the number keeps growing.  Each year there is a world championship tournament played in Tokyo, the home of the game's inventor...a young man by the name of Hideo Tanaka.  The story's protagonist is a young woman, Emika Chen, who since her arrest in high school for hacking the accounts of people in retaliation for persecuting a friend of hers, has lived on the outskirts of society, struggling to earn a living in New York City as a bounty hunter whose main focus is finding gambling law violators, usually in relation to Warcross.  She is very likable and sympathetic, and is also a big fan of Warcross, both as an anonymous player and a follower of the top world professional leagues and players.  At the opening of the world championship, she impulsively hacks into a game, which is being broadcast worldwide...but she is exposed in the act, with her image visible everywhere: now almost everywhere people recognize her. Very shortly thereafter Hideo Tanaka contacts her and invites her to Tokyo...and so continues the rest of the story, which you're invited to read for yourself...

There is a tone to Warcross that is glaringly apparent to me, a outsider in the world of video gaming. My video game playing pretty much ended with Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog series, which my son Will stoically conquered as a little kid.  His generation is totally tuned in to video gaming...mine isn't, a truly substantial generation gap.  I know folks around me who are totally into this activity and they seem differently wired mentally than those like me who aren't...that's not a criticism, just an observation.  I kind of wish that I had gotten into them earlier in my life, but they seemed kind of pointless back then and, well, I still hold to that viewpoint to an extent.  But it would have served as a sort of generational conduit had I been a little better versed in the different games.  Warcross seems to make the assumption that "virtually" everyone is into video gaming, though...an assumption that I would beg to differ with.  Still, it is set sometime in the future...maybe the author thought that by then "my" generation would have already gone by the wayside.  I liked Warcross, though, and plan to follow this blossoming series which I expect will be adapted to movies...

2018 Kentucky Derby Has Wide-Open Field

Once again it is the first Saturday in May and voilá, here is the Kentucky Derby horse race, held at the Churchill Downs track just a couple of blocks south of the University of Louisville.  In the 2018 edition of this time-honored event that represents the first of the three-race Triple Crown for three-year-old thoroughbreds, there will be 20 entrants, with several horses bunched together as favorites and many more as longshots.  At this writing the favorites, in general order of betting odds, are Justify, Mendelssohn, Magnum Moon, Audible, and Belt d'Oro.  Sometimes I get a "feeling" about a name and that horse mysteriously wins...Tonality in the Belmont Stakes a few years ago was one such example.  Magnum Moon is my choice this time around, based on complete ignorance and only a hunch...but it's all for fun!  As for the horse with my favorite name, it's one of the longshots: Free Drop Billy...

The Kentucky Derby is supposedly slated for 6:46 pm and will get 2:30-7:30 coverage on NBC.  I'll probably watch some of the prerace programming to get a better sense of the horses and to see any late changes in the lineup and odds.  In any event I'm hoping that whichever horse wins this race will also win the Preakness, setting up yet another exciting Triple Crown scenario for the Belmont.  We'll see...

Quote of the Week...from John C. Maxwell

Life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it.           John C. Maxwell

John C. Maxwell is a famous leadership development trainer/teacher...I picked the above quote of his because he is discussing the concept of "react".  We all react at every moment of our lives to what's going on around us...otherwise we wouldn't survive.  Most of our reactions we are unconscious of...what I will discuss are the conscious decisions we make to react to cues we encounter...

Maxwell is making the strong point that the quality of our lives is largely a matter of personal choice.  It is important to realize this, for the more successful one becomes the more exposed he or she is to criticism from others...just look at all the businesses with their multitudes of Yelp reviews and authors with similar critiques from Goodreads.  You accomplish something worthwhile and somebody's certain to pan it...reacting negatively to this inevitability won't accomplish anything...

There are people that I would term "reactive personalities".  They tend to allow any prompt they see or hear lead them to determine what they feel, say, and do.  If there is a terrorist attack somewhere, they overreact as if they themselves are about to be attacked.  If they see some folks enjoying greater economic prosperity than themselves, they feel resentment instead of rejoicing in their friends' good fortune.  If they see someone on TV who reminds them of a negative aspect about someone they know, they're liable to suddenly turn cold toward that person for no apparent reason. These people are more likely to be regarded as "drama queens" or "prima donnas", wanting to be recognized as the "top" of whatever group they happen to be in...our president has one of the worst reactive personalities I've seen in anyone.  Another characteristic of reactive people is that they are consumed with themselves and only listen to others in order to judge them or if they themselves are the central topic of discussion.  These people are a drudge to be around, demanding loyalty without reciprocating...

The opposite of a reactive person is what John C. Maxwell is suggesting: a proactive individual lives by guiding principles that strengthen them in the face of outside pressure or influence.  Such a soul recognizes that they cannot please everyone and that there can be fulfillment in solitude and as a follower...and that true empathy with others requires a release from reacting to what they say or do and instead try to see things from their perspective.   If an election goes the wrong way, somebody cuts you off in traffic, or the president tweets something characteristically offensive, you would still be okay in not liking it but you could keep your focus on what you stand for and want to do.  This path sounds more attractive to me, not that I always make the right choices in this regard...

4/29 Sermon on Daniel, Pt. 4

At the Family Church here in Gainesville Philip Griffin, our senior pastor, continued his Counter-Culture series this past Sunday about the Old Testament book of Daniel with a message titled The Conversion of Nebuchadnezzar.  The focus passage was Daniel 4: click on it to read it via Bible Gateway.  In examining what happened to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, Pastor Philip brought up some points about the price of pride...

Once again Nebuchadnezzar has an unsettling dream, although this time around he is a bit gentler about asking for an interpretation.  Daniel seeks God and the dream's meaning is revealed: for a time Nebuchadnezzar will become like the animals and leave all of the power and possessions that he has taken so much pride in because he has arrogantly refused to acknowledge God's role in all of his earthly blessings. In the end he is restored to his throne, has repented of his pride, and now understands the love of God.  Like him, we can be caught up with what we are proud of but still be insecure and empty...as Philip remarked, we cannot get soul-level contentment from anything this world offers.  He also pointed out that pride diminishes our humanity when we come to the belief that we...not God...are masters of our own fate.  Our pastor continued, listing five characteristics that Nebuchadnezzar shared with all who are consumed by pride: his identity was wrapped up in his possessions and accomplishments, he was blinded to his sin, he believed he was better and more deserving than others, he overlooked the vulnerable and oppressed, and he took credit for what God had done.   But, as Philip concluded, once Babylon's wayward king experienced the life-changing love of God, he expressed his gratitude to his Lord for humbling him...and this applies to us as well...

You can watch this sermon for yourself by clicking on the following link to the church's YouTube video website: [TFC Video].  The Family Church, at 2022 SW 122nd Street (Parker Road), meets on Sunday morning at 9 and 10:30...each service has the weekly message, wonderful praise and worship music, prayer and discipleship opportunities, a hospitality room with coffee and refreshments, and lots of friendly and interesting folks.  Daniel continues this Sunday...

Weekly Short Story: Nobody Lives on Burton Street by Gregory Benford

The notion that it is a good thing for people to release their pent-up frustrations by acting out in an aggressive manner seems to have become a generally accepted part of our popular culture.  The 1970 Gregory Benford short story Nobody Lives on Burton Street...which appears in the anthology World's Best Science Fiction 1971 (Ace Books)...bears this out.  It is at some point in the future and we're seeing a dystopian society where the economy sucks and the state has not only perfected autocratic ways of controlling dissent and protest, but also can manipulate the disaffected masses into channeling their discontent into carefully-directed areas: Burton Street is one such set-up...a completely artificial place.  When the government's Force encounters rioters entering this street, which is lined up on both sides by businesses (or fake businesses), we see just how manipulative a controlling power can be with its people...as well as the implementing of this idea that if folks can let out some steam over their miserable lives then they will become more submissive and content in the long run.  Guess what?  I disagree...

It has been my life experience with others...as well as with myself...that the more people behave and think in an aggressive and hostile manner, the worse they become in this regard, not better.  That's because they are reinforcing the negativity underlying their behavior, as well as that behavior.  What I think has confused some well-intentioned people about this is that intense physical activity, such as competitive sports, will tire out the participants to where they cannot...at least temporarily...engage in aggressive behavior while they rest and recover.  Children who get outside the home to play or, while at school, have a time allotted to go out on the playground and run around, are more likely to be attentive and respectful to others...deprivation of this can make Johnny a rowdy little boy.  But here we're talking about physical activity, not hostility and anger...big difference!  Screaming behind the wheel at the other drivers bugging you is no "release"...it just builds and reinforces upon itself...curiously, the mind will find itself seeking out imaginary offenses to continue the established behavior.  So yes, get out and do sports...but don't confuse that with aggressive and hurtful actions and speech, in spite of commonly promoted beliefs...reinforced by our plague of reality TV and our overly reactive and touchy president...

Tuesday's List: My Top Three Songs from Various Musical Acts, Pt. 4

Here are a few more musical acts with my top three favorite songs from each of them...I continue to plod along chronologically in very rough fashion as I go from the 1980s into the 1990s, although many of the songs are from outside that range.  I considered some artists who had one or two songs I really liked...but dang it, I couldn't find a third song that appealed to me so I left them off the list.  And don't forget: I'm not necessarily listing the "greatest" songs...only the ones that have personally stuck with me.  Here goes...

WHITNEY HOUSTON
1 SO EMOTIONAL
2 THE GREATEST LOVE OF ALL
2 HOW WILL I KNOW

VAN HALEN
1 HUMANS BEING
2 FEELS SO GOOD
3 AND THE CRADLE WILL ROCK...

PET SHOP BOYS
1 WHAT HAVE I DONE TO DESERVE THIS (with Dusty Springfield)
2 WEST END GIRLS
3 ALWAYS ON MY MIND

THE BEASTIE BOYS
1 SABOTAGE
2 INTERGALACTIC
3 BRASS MONKEY

BILLY IDOL
1 CRADLE OF LOVE
2 EYES WITHOUT A FACE
3 DANCING WITH MYSELF

DEF LEPPARD
1 ROCK OF AGES
2 HYSTERIA
3 ANIMAL

EURYTHMICS
1 LOVE IS A STRANGER
2 WOULD I LIE TO YOU?
3 HERE COMES THE RAIN AGAIN

MISSING PERSONS
1 DESTINATION UNKNOWN
2 WORDS
3 MENTAL HOPSCOTCH

JEFFERSON AIRPLANE/STARSHIP
1 WHITE RABBIT
2 MIRACLES
3 WE BUILT THIS CITY

JANET JACKSON
1 MISS YOU MUCH
2 ESCAPADE
3 RUNAWAY

ZZ TOP
1 VELCRO FLY
2 SLEEPING BAG
3 SHARP DRESSED MAN

JOHN (COUGAR) MELLENCAMP
1 CHECK IT OUT
2 CHERRY BOMB
3 PINK HOUSES

SHEENA EASTON
1 YOU COULD HAVE BEEN WITH ME
2 WE'VE GOT TONIGHT (with Kenny Rogers)
3 9 TO 5 (MORNING TRAIN)

NIRVANA
1 SCENTLESS APPRENTICE
2 DUMB
3 COME AS YOU ARE

PEARL JAM
1 OCEANS
2 CORDUROY
3 EVEN FLOW

SOUNDGARDEN
1 MY WAVE
2 FACE POLLUTION
3 FRESH TENDRILS

ALICE IN CHAINS
1 AGAIN
2 GRIND
3 HEAD CREEPS

STONE TEMPLE PILOTS
1 SOUR GIRL
2 BIG BANG BABY
3 VASELINE

TRAVELIN' WILBURYS
1 HANDLE WITH CARE
2 MARGARITA
3 END OF THE LINE

COUNTING CROWS
1 MR. JONES
2 A LONG DECEMBER
3 ROUND HERE

DAVE MATTHEWS BAND
1 THE SPACE BETWEEN
2 CRASH INTO ME
3 ANTS MARCHING

COLLECTIVE SOUL
1 WHERE THE RIVER FLOWS
2 PRECIOUS DECLARATION
3 GIVING

THE SMASHING PUMPKINS
1 TONIGHT TONIGHT
2 BULLET WITH BUTTERFLY WINGS
3 TODAY

SARAH MCLACHLAN
1 BUILDING A MYSTERY
2 SWEET SURRENDER
3 FALLEN

STEVE WINWOOD
1 BACK IN THE HIGH LIFE AGAIN
2 HOLDING ON
3 THE LOW SPARK OF HIGH-HEELED BOYS (with Traffic)

RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS
1 GIVE IT AWAY
2 TELL ME BABY
3 SCAR TISSUE

GEORGE THOROUGHGOOD (and the Destroyers)
1 WHO DO YOU LOVE?
2 MOVE IT ON OVER
3 BAD TO THE BONE

BLACK CROWES
1 REMEDY
2 HOTEL ILLNESS
3 HARD TO HANDLE

DEPECHE MODE
1 ENJOY THE SILENCE
2 EVERYTHING COUNTS
3 POLICY OF TRUTH

GREEN DAY
1 GOOD RIDDANCE (TIME OF YOUR LIFE)
2 HOLIDAY
3 BOULEVARD OF BROKEN DREAMS

GARBAGE
1 STUPID GIRL
2 PUSH IT
3 SPECIAL

My April 2018 Running Report

In April I ran for 45 total miles, missing six days with 3.2 miles being my longest single run...pretty low numbers.  I passed up on racing opportunities and, well, the reason is clear: I physically did not feel well enough.  In mid-month I suffered from a slight back strain and had to take some time off from the activity.  I'd like to increase my running in May, but I'll just have to take things one day at a time.  Also, the extra overtime I'm getting on my job has cut into the time of day that I would normally be out there hitting the road.  After work at the gym may be my best option to train and stay in shape.  I think there's a 5K race on May 18...maybe I'll work up to it...

Looking Back on 1968

After working a little more than my full shift at my workplace, I came home and naturally sat down to relax and watch one of my favorite TV channels: C-Span.  It was showing a recap of the tumultuous year of 1968 when assassinations, war, the election, and all the protests were going on.  I was there in the middle of it all...no, I wasn't in any of the news stories, I was just an eleven year old kid, going on twelve, and trying to get through my relatively insignificant little life...

The first half of 1968 had me in the sixth grade, a "senior" at my Nova Elementary School in Davie.  The second half I was a lowly seventh grader across the field at Nova High.  Now here's the kicker: when we were supposedly younger and less mature, we didn't lord our seniority over the lower grades...but in Nova High, the upperclassman were extremely hierarchical about their position and imagined superiority.  Doubtless this "reverse-maturity" had a great deal to do with adolescence and the need in some primitive, mammalian-brain-dominated classmates to establish some kind of pecking order.  Nevertheless, it was disconcerting for me in August of that year to meet up with kids just a class ahead of me whom I knew back in Nova Elementary and who suddenly didn't recognize me...or pretended not do...

If there was one theme that dominated my life back in 1968 and gave the year a personal stamp, it was my peculiar hobby of AM radio DX-ng, that is, listening to distant stations on the radio.  This would occur during the nighttime when picking up stations hundreds and even thousands of miles away was possible...I would regularly listen from my south Floridian home in Hollywood to stations like WBT/Charlotte, NC, WABC/New York, WBZ/Boston, WSM/Nashville, TN, and TransWorld Radio from Bonaire, Netherlands Antilles.  I would tune in on frequencies that were essentially a jumbled mess of sounds and strain my ears to pick out anything coherent among the noise...it was definitely a training period for me in both learning to listen and cultivating patience. During the second half of 1968 I discovered that the second-year American Basketball Association had a franchise in Miami called the Floridians...I closely followed their games on Miami's low power AM station WOCN/1450...that was perhaps my most memorable sports season, especially when you couple it with the Miami Dolphin's 1968 season under coach George Wilson: they went 5-8-1 that year but had most of the players they would be using to later go to three Super Bowls, win two, and go undefeated in 1972...

1968 was the year of the long song, which AM radio had previously steadfastly avoided.  Hey Jude, MacArthur Park, Time Will Come Today, Those Were the Days, and Sky Pilot, to name some of the more prominent, got a lot of airtime...I know, because I'd be trying to get a station's ID and had to wait until the damned song was finally over!  It was also the year that The Prisoner, one of my all-time favorite television series, began its 17-episode run on CBS.  So no, I wasn't at all caught up with the turmoil and war and politics the way it is being presented on retrospective documentaries...no, I was caught up with my own life...

Just Finished Reading The Absolute Value of Mike by Kathryn Erskine

The Absolute Value of Mike is a short 2011 teen-level novel by Kathryn Erskine.  Mike, a 14-year old challenged by anything mathematical, happens to have as his widowed father a renowned mathematician who has great plans for his son's future in engineering...too bad Mike doesn't in any way want to be an engineer!  Dad one day tells Mike that he will be going to teach a few weeks in Romania, and that Mike will be staying with Aunt Moo and Uncle Poppy out in a small Pennsylvania town where Poppy is developing an artesian screw.  Mike doesn't know this aunt and uncle of his father and knows that such an engineering project is designed to enable him to go to a science-based special school that he wants to avoid...so the summer stay-over appeals very little to him.  When he arrives there, he finds the situation completely unlike what he had expected...and through the various crises affecting those living there he discovers his own special talents and calling...

Erskine injected a lot of humor into her story, which Mike tells in the first person.  Her protagonist, although just a kid, seems to be the only one around who is capable of thinking clearly...in a curious way this causes him at times to descend into angry fits at different people whose self-absorption and grief have allowed them to renege on their responsibilities to each other and to themselves.  The town's big project is to raise enough money in a short time for one of its residents to be able to adopt Misha, a Romanian orphan...and Mike finds himself unwillingly put in charge of it all.  But before anything can be done, he needs to do some major work helping folks repair their broken lives and stop deceiving themselves...until one of them reveals to Mike that he is also living a broken life of self-deception...

It got a little frustrating reading about a young adolescent acting more mature and reasonable than the adults surrounding him, but I get the fact that the target audience for this book is someone around Mike's age.  It's very easy reading, and I enjoyed seeing things from the perspective of this kid...I certainly wasn't anywhere nearly as rationale or lucid when I was that age.  And there are some good lessons to be learned from his experiences: The Absolute Value of Mike is a worthwhile way to spend some reading time, regardless of your age...

Quote of the Week...from Mark Twain

Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.                ---Mark Twain.

I think one of the biggest problems people have when undertaking ambitious projects in their lives are others around them who berate their goals and drive.  What's worse, when the inevitable struggles that accompany the beginning and forging of a major endeavor arise, the reaction from others can be equally negative.   I have had projects and goals in the past and a few with which I am currently engaged, but past experience has taught me to keep them close to the vest and not openly share with others outside my supportive family what I am trying to accomplish.  That's enough about Twain's "small people", but what about his "really great"?

I believe with all of my heart that people who have achieved greatness in different areas can play a very important role in helping those pursuing significant, related goals in their lives...the only problem for me is that almost all of the ones who seemed to display any interest in sharing that greatness have been authors and speakers from books, television, and radio.  This "from a distance" encouraging and motivating can only go so far...after all, they haven't a clue about who I am or my own abilities and values, seeing that we've never met.  Sad to say, the people I have encountered over the years who by any calculation would be considered "great", when around me, have seemed more intent on establishing their superiority over me on the social hierarchy totem pole than imparting any sense that I, too, could follow their example.  I have heard stories from people who have led very successful careers, and almost without exception they point to one or more people in their past who instilled confidence and hope that they had what it takes to excel in their own right.  Of course, my wonderful family encourages me out of love and I appreciate that...but what I'm talking about here is what Twain is talking about...successful people outside the family who can reach out to others: Twain says they do reach out...a few others say a few of them helped in their lives...and I say I'll believe it when I see it and I ain't seen it yet. This void for me has been especially remarkable considering the great number of "teachers" I went through in elementary, junior, and senior high school, any of whom could have made a big difference in my life but none chose to.  The NEA can have their self-promoting commercials: I have my own clear memories to the contrary...

4/22 Sermon on Daniel, Pt. 3

At the Family Church here in Gainesville, senior pastor Philip Griffin continued his series on the Old Testament book of Daniel, this message titled Standing When All Others Bow and focusing on Daniel Chapter 3, which you can click on and read through Bible Gateway. 

King Nebuchadnezzar has decided to build a ninety-foot tall, nine-foot wide golden idol...possibly of himself...and has commanded all of his officials to fall down and worship it...or else suffer death in a fiery furnace.  Daniel's faithful Jewish friends Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refuse, though, and when word of this reaches the prideful Babylonian king, he is enraged.  His anger further intensifies when he hears them say that their God would rescue them from the flames...but even if he didn't they still would not worship the idol.  As it turns out, God does rescue them while in the furnace and nothing of theirs...including their clothing...is burnt.  The king repents and appoints them to high posts of authority...

Pastor Philip used this story to discuss the idea of holding to one's faith in God and remaining standing when all others bow, listing three important elements: there is pressure to reform, faith has a price, and suffering contains a promise.  It is often easy to bend one's principles in small things and belittle their significance...everybody's doing it, no one will know, and so on goes the rationalizing.  Philip also brought up the point that Nebuchadnezzar was a pluralist in religious matters: you could worship your own God...but you'd better worship his as well.  We don't worship giant golden idols in our day, but we have our own idols we put beside the real God: money, power, pleasure, sex, to mention a few of them...so maybe we're not as different from the king of Babylon as we would like to imagine ourselves.  The price of faith is the willingness to suffer for it to the glory of God and the building of his kingdom...and that price has often been death...one estimate that our pastor revealed was that 70 million Christians since Jesus have paid that price for their faithfulness.  But as Philip pointed out, suffering by faith is not only inevitable, but it contains the promises that our character will be purified through it and that God joins us in our suffering.  And he concluded the message by stressing that we need to let God, not ourselves, be the one in charge of advancing our success while we refuse to bow down to our culture's idols...and that we are to make Christ first in our hearts, in our day, in our consideration, and in our finances.  Whew, that's a lot of wisdom to digest...thank you, Philip!

You can watch Pastor Philip's message online through YouTube...just click on the following link: [TFC Videos].  The Family Church, at 2022 SW 122nd Street, meets for its services Sunday mornings at 9 and 10:30.  They have the weekly message, praise and worship music, friendly people, prayer, learning...and free coffee and refreshments.  Daniel Part 4 will be the message this Sunday...

Wednesday's Short Story: Hop-Frog by Edgar Allan Poe

I recently checked out a book of short stories by American horror and mystery writer Edgar Allan Poe.  Included among the tales, featuring Masque of the Red Death, the Pit and the Pendulum, the Tell-Tale Heart, and the Raven, is Hop-Frog, originally published in 1849, the year of the author's mysterious premature death at age 40.  His stories are full of murderous characters concocting different creative schemes of enacting revenge against their enemies: Hop-Frog is no exception.  Set in a kingdom run by a tyrant with his councilors, Hop-Frog is the court jester, a dwarf with a defect causing his walk to resemble that of a toad or frog...hence the name.  A young dwarf woman, Trippeta, has also been brought to the court and the two become friends.  One day the king decides to play a cruel joke on Hop-Frog, who is well-known to not be able to drink alcohol without quickly becoming intoxicated.  In the presence of the abetting councilors, he forces the jester to down drink after drink.  When Trippeta steps up and implores the king to stop, he hits her and throws a drink in her face.  Hop-Frog immediately sobers up and suggests to the evil king a practical joke that he and his councilors can play on the unsuspecting crowd in the upcoming masquerade party: they will all be dressed up as orangutans and will frighten the party-goers as they charge toward them.  Of course, this is an Edgar Allan Poe story and we all know that Hop-Frog has something vengeful in mind, not at all good fun as the king and his cohorts believe...

Poe's stories display an intensity of horror for which I've found no match, not even in today's literary world overflowing with horror writers.  Hop-Frog fits this pattern, although I originally began reading it thinking okay, here's a story placed in a fairy tale setting that isn't about some twisted soul committed a ghastly revenge murder on an unsuspecting victim.  Oh well, the author obviously had issues of his own to deal with, and apparently this kind of writing worked for him.  Upon reading Hop-Frog, I discovered that Poe wrote it with a fellow writer in mind (along with her literary friends) whom he had accused of spreading scurrilous gossip about him regarding another woman.  I don't particularly care for the writing of Edgar Allan Poe, but I may go over some of his other, more famous stories just because he is a historical figure in American literature...and then return the book...

Tuesday's List: My Top Three Favorite Songs of Various Musical Artists, Pt. 3

And so I continue with my ongoing weekly list of three personal favorite songs from different musical acts over the span of their careers.  This week I'm creeping a little closer to the present, but still stuck in the late 1970s and early-to-mid 1980s for the most part...although some of the songs listed may belong outside that range.  And a reminder: this is not my critique of these acts' greatest songs, rather a listing of those that made the greatest positive impact on me.  Check it out...you probably have your own favorites of some of these artists...

MANFRED MANN
1 RUNNER (Manfred Mann's Earth Band)
2 BLINDED BY THE LIGHT (Manfred Mann's Earth Band)
3 MIGHTY QUINN

JIMMY BUFFET
1 CHEESEBURGER IN PARADISE
2 COME MONDAY
3 VOLCANO

THE ALLMAN BROTHERS
1 RAMBLIN' MAN
2 WHIPPING POST
3 JESSICA

BACHMAN TURNER OVERDRIVE
1 YOU AIN'T SEEN NOTHING YET
2 LOOKIN' OUT FOR #1
3 TAKIN' CARE OF BUSINESS

THE GRATEFUL DEAD
1 TRUCKIN'
2 SHAKEDOWN STREET
3 TOUCH OF GREY

MICHAEL JACKSON
1 MAN IN THE MIRROR
2 ROCK WITH YOU
3 BEAT IT

MEN AT WORK
1 BE GOOD JOHNNY
2 IT'S A MISTAKE
3 WHO CAN IT BE NOW

GENESIS
1 HOME BY THE SEA
2 ABACAB
3 TURN IT ON AGAIN

PETER GABRIEL
1 SHOCK THE MONKEY
2 BIG TIME
3 SLEDGEHAMMER

DURAN DURAN
1 SAVE A PRAYER
2 HUNGRY LIKE THE WOLF
3 NEW MOON ON MONDAY

BLONDIE
1 RAPTURE
2 ONE WAY OR ANOTHER
3 HEART OF GLASS

STING
1 ALL THIS TIME
2 FIELDS OF GOLD
3 IF YOU LOVE SOMEBODY SET THEM FREE

PRINCE
1 RASPBERRY BERET
2 KISS
3 LET'S GO CRAZY

U2
1 I WILL FOLLOW
2 BULLET THE BLUE SKY
2 DESIRE

HALL AND OATES
1 I CAN'T GO FOR THAT
2 PRIVATE EYES
3 KISS ON MY LIST

BOZ SKAGGS
1 LIDO SHUFFLE
2 BREAKDOWN DEAD AHEAD
3 LOWDOWN

PAT BENATAR
1 PROMISES IN THE DARK
2 LOVE IS A BATTLEFIELD
3 HIT ME WITH YOUR BEST SHOT

ROBERT PLANT
1 TALL COOL ONE
2 BURNING DOWN ONE SIDE
3 BIG LOG

CHRISTOPHER CROSS
1 SAILING
2 RIDE LIKE THE WIND
3 ARTHUR'S THEME

THE BANGLES
1 ETERNAL FLAME
2 WALKING DOWN YOUR STREET
3 GOING DOWN TO LIVERPOOL

THE GO-GOS
1 HEAD OVER HEELS
2 VACATION
3 OUR LIPS ARE SEALED

INXS
1 NOT ENOUGH TIME
2 THE ONE THING
3 SUICIDE BLONDE

JETHRO TULL
1 LIVING IN THE PAST
2 THICK AS A BRICK
3 LOCOMOTIVE BREATH

TALKING HEADS
1 ROAD TO NOWHERE
2 ONCE IN A LIFETIME
3 WARNING SIGN

TOM PETTY & THE HEARTBREAKERS
1 I WON'T BACK DOWN
2 JAMMIN' ME
3 DON'T COME AROUND HERE NO MORE

MADONNA
1 RAY OF LIGHT
2 LIVE TO TELL
3 MUSIC

SUPERTRAMP
1 TAKE THE LONG WAY HOME
2 BREAKFAST IN AMERICA
3 GIVE A LITTLE BIT

PETE TOWNSEND
1 FACE DANCES, PT. 2
2 ROUGH BOYS
3 LET MY LOVE OPEN THE DOOR

ERIC CLAPTON
1 LAYLA (as Derek and the Dominoes)
2 LAY DOWN SALLY
3 TEARS IN HEAVEN

HELEN REDDY
1 I DON'T KNOW HOW TO LOVE HIM
2 PEACEFUL
3 LEAVE ME ALONE (RUBY RED DRESS)

KC AND THE SUNSHINE BAND
1 I'M YOUR BOOGIE MAN
2 GET DOWN TONIGHT
3 KEEP IT COMIN' LOVE

HEART
1 CRAZY ON YOU
2 THESE DREAMS
3 ALONE

ABBA
1 SOS
2 DANCING QUEEN
3 TAKE A CHANCE ON ME

FOREIGNER
1 I WANT TO KNOW WHAT LOVE IS
2 JUKE BOX HERO
3 URGENT

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN
1 TUNNEL OF LOVE
2 STREETS OF PHILADELPHIA
3 GLORY DAYS

THE FIXX
1 SAVED BY ZERO
2 ONE THING LEADS TO ANOTHER
3 STAND OR FALL

DIRE STRAITS
1 SKATEAWAY
2 SULTANS OF SWING
3 HEAVY FUEL

CYNDI LAUPER
1 TIME AFTER TIME
2 GIRLS JUST WANT TO HAVE FUN
3 ALL THROUGH THE NIGHT

AEROSMITH
1 DUDE LOOKS LIKE A LADY
2 BACK IN THE SADDLE
3 LIVIN' ON THE EDGE

Just Finished Reading God Emperor of Dune by Frank Herbert

It hasn't been the most pleasant reading voyage I've experienced, but with God Emperor of Dune I have now finished with four of Frank Herbert's six-volume Dune science fiction series...at least the books he wrote by himself, that is.  Here again is my reviewer's dilemma: to summarize what happens in this book without giving away its ending isn't enough to avoid plot spoilers: after all, the beginning of God Emperor of Dune, along with its main protagonist (which I'm afraid I already did on Friday), cannot be revealed else I give away the previous book's ending!  And so I guess it will be for the last two Dune books as well...instead I'll do what I've seen Isaac Asimov do in many of his previews for different science fiction short stories in his anthology series: I'll discuss some aspects of Herbert's story while veering as much as I can away from its plot...

There is a lot of philosophy expressed in God Emperor of Dune...much more so than in the previous books, which also delved heavily into metaphysics.  The problem with this is that the one doing most of the philosophizing is a godlike character armed with the complete life memories of thousands upon thousands of others and who has the ability to chart...in detail...alternative future paths of reality, thousands of years into the future, based on actions that he can take in his lifetime.  His unique circumstances make it hard to model my thinking after his, but from time to time he comes up with some significant ideas that many can apply to their lives...but few often do.  One of these is the notion that the beginning of learning is the recognition that I am ignorant...how often do we prideful humans mask our lack of knowledge about a particular area in order to save face or resist a possible challenge to our entrenched worldview?  Yet if my car's engine light goes on and I don't know the cause, I will take it to the mechanic...an implicit admission on my part that I don't possess the knowledge to fix it.  In like manner, I don't understand climatology on the level that advanced scientists in the field do, so I rely on their expertise when they overwhelmingly claim that the earth is overheating at a rapid rate due to manmade carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere.  In the case of the car, my learning is based on the effective path I need to take to get it fixed, knowing that I do not possess the resources myself to get it done...with the climate, I can also depend on the scientific community's resources through their research in at least understanding some rudimentary principles that fortify their positions on the subject and then take positive measures in my own life to help contribute to a solution.  In both cases, it is my admission that others are more adept and knowledgeable in an area than myself that spurs me on to constructive actions and learning how to solve problems from my particular position...

Ironically, there are also areas in life that I've discovered it's a good idea to pretend that I know what I'm doing when I really don't.  In these instances I engage in the practice of "winging it", that is, immersing myself in the activity and stumbling around until I pick up enough knowledge and ability to become effective at it.  But still, while I may have initially concealed my ignorance in these cases to other people, in my own mind I never deceived myself into believing I was capable from the start...sometimes you just have to get down in the middle of something and struggle around a bit while being prepared to look a little foolish for a while...

Visit to Santa Fe College Planetarium Yesterday

I've been a number of times in the past to the Kika Silva Pla Planetarium at Santa Fe College in northwestern Gainesville, but it had been a while since my last visit.  I asked my son Will if he'd like to go, too, and we saw their Saturday afternoon show featuring a tour from planet to planet in our Solar System...appropriately to the different movements of Gustav Holst's symphonic work The Planets. Planetarium director James Albury was still there hosting the event with his good humor and enthusiasm...you might know him as a cohost on the weekly five-minute PBS series Star Gazers...originally titled Star Hustler (I imagine that P.C. dictated the change). It was Albury himself who created this presentation, originally as a fundraiser for some students at Buchholz, a local high school.  I was impressed with the graphics and information given, but I wondered whether others in the audience were understanding it all or receiving the entertainment value for which they came.  After all, we're not talking about adrenaline-pumping high action and suspense on the level of Star Wars.  And maybe the rather dimmed colorization of the planets didn't exactly help, either.  Still, I liked the program and learned a few things...

Starting from Mercury and going outward from the Sun, skipping over Earth, and ending at Neptune, the presentation provided various interesting facts about the planets and some of their moons as well.  As for the gas giants Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune (the latter two also referred to as "ice giants"), the orbits of their chief moons were shown as lit-up curves, creating striking visual effects.  I also noticed that all of the moons of Uranus were named after characters from English literature, apparently a tribute to William Herschel, the English astronomer who discovered the seventh planet.  And with each planet, there was a short description of its own named movement from Holst's masterpiece: Mars is perhaps the most famous, but my favorite by far is that of Neptune...

This planetarium has other shows as well, but it's taking a week or two off between school terms before resuming.  Besides The Planets, yesterday's lineup included an imaginary thrill ride journey through the solar system (which I've seen before but has since been enhanced), Child of the Universe (a traditional favorite created by Jack Horkheimer in 1972), and a light show presentation accompanied by the music of Led Zeppelin.  Yes, I said Led Zeppelin, believe it or not...