Some Places We Visited in Washington, D.C. in October

The other night I was watching C-Span as they replayed the laying in state of the body of President George H.W. Bush in the Capitol Rotunda.  Having just visited there for the first time six weeks ago, it was interesting seeing all these famous public figures gathered in the same room I was just standing in. As a matter of fact, whenever I now see on TV anything concerning Washington D.C. I try to discern exactly what it is they're depicting...this is especially true for the news networks like CNN as they often present a live background of some part of the city, usually around the Capitol building or the White House.  Our brief visit there just wasn't enough to explore the many sights and attractions...aside from the Capitol, we did take that nighttime open-air bus tour and, on the last full day, explored two museums and a garden along Independence Avenue west of the Capitol.  At the close of our earlier Capitol visit late in the afternoon, Melissa noticed there was a tunnel linking it to the Library of Congress across the street...but the workers there were closing the doors for the day.  We rushed over and just got in, quickly walking down the tunnel while the "closer" kept ushering us and other lagging tourists onward.  I'm glad we got in: the Library of Congress is not only is a famous repository of books, but it is also a great historical museum...we strolled the exhibits, many of which displayed original copies of centuries-old literature describing the exploration and settlement of the New World.  That's a place I'd like to revisit to explore further...unfortunately, at the time I was experiencing a horrific toothache that interfered with my enjoyment of the library but not my appreciation of it.  I got that toothache taken care of the next morning with a root canal at a dentist only a short walking distance from our hotel...I was somehow able to dissociate the chronic pain from our touring, a talent that I had believed only Mister Spock of Star Trek fame possessed...

We naturally missed most of the many Smithsonian museums in town, but did manage to tour through the two nearest ones to our hotel, lying adjacent to one another on Independence Avenue: the National Museum of the American Indian and the National Air and Space Museum.  Both were interesting, although I was surprised to be more drawn to the one about the American Indian...that's another place that merits a return visit.  One funny experience was at lunchtime at their cafeteria, with different stations offering native cuisine from different areas in the Western Hemisphere.  The longest line of customers by far was at the Plains counter, where they were gung ho on serving beef: plate after plate I saw featured cheeseburgers and fries!  The Air and Space Museum had a series of terrific exhibits about the history of aviation, in particular the planes used by both sides in World War I & II, with some of them on display within this gigantic building.  I thought the "space" part of the museum well-exhibited, too, although it saddened me that there was very, very, little to see of what we've been doing lately in space...hopefully with the projects to send people to Mars in the near future, this will all change...

Before visiting those two Smithsonian museums on Friday, Melissa and I strolled through the United States Botanic Garden, which featured plants from all over the world, many of them responsible for producing the food and drink we consume.  I'm sadly a near-complete ignoramus when it comes to botany, but I was intrigued by what I saw there...I especially liked all of those weird types of cacti.  The photo I inserted at the beginning is of a section in this garden...

No doubt about it: I liked Washington, D.C., even if all the politicians I might have recognized were out of town at the time of our visit.  I also liked their terrific underground transit system, the Metro, and noticed that they also have a very good 24/7 bus system...a most pedestrian-friendly city!  I think the next time I visit I'd like to try out some areas north of the Mall, including some of this city's recommended eating places...oh, and I think I'd like to jog the perimeter of the Mall as well...

Just Finished Reading The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman & The Racketeer by John Grisham

Seeing how Neil Gaiman and John Grisham have become two of my favorite authors, it's not surprising that I'd read a couple more of their books, finishing them at the same time...

Gaiman's 2008 young adult novel The Graveyard Book, as you might infer from its title, has some pretty sinister overtones to it: in the opening scene at a rural English town, an assassin with a knife kills an infant's parents and sister at night in their house.  Turning to his room, the evil Man Jack discovers the baby's crib to be empty...he's crawled away and is heading to the nearby graveyard.  There the Owens take him in and hide him from the murderer...only problem is that they're ghosts!  The community of ghosts haunting that place decide to bring up young Nobody Owens, as he is renamed, under the Owens' care.  A protective and reformed vampire named Silas brings in food and supplies from the outside world...and sets out to combat the terrible organization that sent the Man Jack to perform his dastardly deed.  The story introduces some very memorable characters as Bod (short for Nobody) grows up there, and it builds up the suspense very well...I'll let you, the potential reader of this relatively short book, read it for yourself to see what happens.  I liked it, although for some reason my mind kept playing the old song Monster Mash in the background while I was reading it...

John Grisham's The Racketeer came out in 2012 and is initially set in Virginia where a young African American lawyer, innocent of any crime, is nevertheless swept away by the Feds in a vast racketeering case, convicted, and sentenced to federal prison for ten years...effectively ruining his marriage and professional life.  But Malcom Bannister has a card up his sleeve he can play, and does: Rule 35, which allows for a convict to get out of jail free if he or she can successfully solve another crime for the FBI. He names a supposedly good friend of his he earlier met in prison, Quinn Rucker, as the recent murderer of a corrupt judge and the suspect is arrested and indicted.  Bannister gets put under the witness protection program and has his name and appearance changed, but Rucker's vengeful friends seem to able to track him anyway.  At this point in the story, Bannister's behavior struck me as being both abhorrently calloused and careless, and I began to lose interest in finishing it.  Which goes to show that with a good author like John Grisham you never know what tricks he has in store for the reader, as The Racketeer's ending explained it all and put an entirely different perspective on Bannister, Rucker and their respective plights.  Turns out this was one of Grisham's best stories!

Sometimes I get into the bad habit of reading several novels at the same time, and that's going on right now.  I'm finishing up Elizabeth Peters' archaeology mystery A River in the Sky and Joe Abercrombie's Last Argument of Kings.  I've also begun The Sword of Shannara by Terry Brooks and Outlander by Diana Gabaldon.  And, of course, I'm reading through old science fiction short stories as well.  With so much on my plate, I'd better get back to the books...

Rain, Rain, Rain

I'm sitting here looking out the window...and seeing a lot of rain.  I'm glad it wasn't like this yesterday morning during my race, and tomorrow I'm sure it'll be nice, sunny...and cold.  But right now it looks like it will go on forever...as Brook Benton once sang, "Seems like it's raining all over the world".  And the wind is pretty strong as well while this winter storm front, called "Diego" by (and only by) The Weather Channel, passes on through.  I'm not a big fan of rainy weather, but it seems that for December here in northern Florida we've been getting more than our usual allotment of precipitation.  Well, I'm ready for the dry now...

Ran the Seasons of Hope 15K Race This Morning

I was ambivalent about running the Seasons of Hope 15K on this December the 8th, but as the date grew nearer I decided that since I had already skipped three good local races last month I'd just go ahead and enter it...with the intent of covering the 9.3 mile distance be it by running or walking.  As it turned out, I only slowed to a walk two or three times, each walk only lasting a few seconds before I was again trotting ahead with my slow pace.  The entire race course took place on the Hawthorne Trail, which was formerly a railroad track converted to a biking/hiking trail, on the southeast side of Gainesville.  The starting/finishing line was directly behind Boulware Springs Park off SE 15th Street.  I was already familiar with the course, which the Tom Walker Memorial Half-Marathon also uses and which I've run twice before (it's one of the races I skipped last month).  I had forgotten some things, though: in the early goings there were several hills and long stretches of upward slopes...on the return back, of course, these were reversed.  Also, I had been under the impression that the park had bathroom facilities, but all I saw were four portable bathrooms set up there, along with two more near the halfway (turnaround) part of the race.  And I thought there was abundant parking, but I arrived there more than an hour before the race began and had to part near the 15th Street entrance: it was already packed!.  The fact is that although only 128 runners entered the 15K race with 118 officially finishing it, there were many more hundreds of participants in the Seasons of Hope 5K...including many children.  The result was a long line of cars parked for a great distance up and down SE 15th Street and ridiculously long bathroom lines before the race.  While acknowledging that it was all being held for a good cause...to raise money to fight the debilitating condition known as dystonia...the event's organizers would be well advised to try to better accommodate the participants for next year.  Usually when I finish a race, there is Gatorade and some recovery food like bagels and bananas available, but since the hundreds of 5K finishers had first pick, there was nothing left for me after I crossed the finish line...I just walked to my car and drove home...

But let's dispense now with the complaints and look at the actual race.  It began at 9 am...well, make that 9:05 since the volunteers kept having to tell clueless 5K runners that their race would be starting ten minutes after the 15K.  The temperature was in the mid-to-upper 50s and the humidity was an uncomfortable 75-85%.  For runners it's better if it is considerably cooler and drier than this, but you have to take the conditions as they are dealt: at least it wasn't raining.  I decided to start slow and hung around a pack of runners going at a pace between 11 and 12 minutes per mile.  After getting through most of the hilly terrain I found myself unconsciously upping my speed until it was around 10 minutes per mile.  I might have been able to go faster but my prime objective was to finish the race, so I got into a comfortable pace and it sustained me for the remainder of the race.  I was prepared to walk for long stretches, but that turned out unnecessary.  My final time was slow, at 1 hour 37 minutes 33 seconds, but I'm happy with it since I "gutted it out" at the end like they used to say on my old high school track team: here's a link to all the finishing times for both the 5K and 15K races: [results].  I finished in fourth place in my 60-64 age group, which had...four runners. Although overall I came in 95th place out of the 118 finishers, I did happen to be the 12th oldest finisher...that's one statistic that I think I'll be able to improve upon over the next few years. The above photo I took shows the stage of the race when I just passed that group of slower runners and had a long, rather empty stretch of the Hawthorne Trail in front of me.  It really is a good running course, although I was a little annoyed at some bicyclists who I believed intruded on the race. Well, that's done...now to get back to my neighborhood runs and possibly some races in January and February...

Quote of the Week...from George H.W. Bush

We don't want an America that is closed to the world. What we want is a world that is open to America.                                                   ---George H.W. Bush

I'm not sure when and in what context our 41st president, who just died a week ago, made the above statement, but it is very relevant to what is going on today with the current administration and its "America First" mantra. Bush, for his part as president, was a big advocate for the United States being in networks of alliances and trade treaties...in the Persian Gulf War, he had as allies both Israel and Syria: now that's an accomplishment! Contrast that with Donald Trump's skepticism about standing alliances and trade treaties: he prefers to deal with other nations on a bilateral basis, understanding that in doing so the United States is almost always the stronger party and cannot be voted down by a bloc of others. His trade disputes with other countries, most particularly China, are not based on wanting to isolate or close us from them but rather to confront them with their policies which prevent or greatly restrict our goods being marketed and sold there.  He ultimately wants...and I agree with him on this...truly free trade between the countries of the world, not just on our side, and he has been using his speeches, Twitter, and tariffs as a means to pressure these other countries to reform their unfair trade practices.  Also, some of these nations steal American innovations without compensation...I guess in that way they're open to America!

As for our borders, I also tend to side with our current president for stronger border security.  As an American I can't just pack up and go to any other country I want without documentation or that country's implicit permission...the same should apply for others seeking entrance into my own country, from whatever source it may be...south of our border, England, Russia, China, or elsewhere.  I guess in all of this I want a level field between us and the rest of the world and not one in which it almost always seems to be the United States that must make concessions to others.  So with regard to our recently departed former president's quote, I would agree with both parts: I don't want America closed off from the world, and I want the world to be open to what we have to offer it.  But I don't want us in the process to be ripped off, either...

President George H.W. Bush, 1924-2018

George H.W. Bush...or simply George Bush as he was called before his son with the same first name became president...passed away last Friday at the age of 94 after a very full, interesting life.  Personally, I liked the guy and, as is the case with every president I've followed in my lifetime, I sometimes agreed with his stances and actions and sometimes disagreed with him.  Like many in that "Greatest Generation" of Americans who served with courage and sacrifice during World War II, Bush acquitted himself with valor as a Navy combat pilot in the Pacific theater against the Japanese Empire. His father, Prescott, was elected as a U.S. senator from Connecticut and his son aspired to follow him into politics...but suffered electoral defeat early on.  George Bush was noticed by President Nixon and appointed first as United Nations Ambassador and later as the CIA Director.  With these credentials and others behind him, he sought the Republican nomination for president in 1980 during the primary season against favored Ronald Reagan.  Early on he presented himself as a more reasonable, moderate candidate and characterized his opponent's embrace of supply-side theories as "voodoo economics".  I was living then in an apartment about a block from the University of Florida's Norman Hall and when his son Neil came there to give a campaign speech for his father, I was impressed...not by George but by Neil.  I was saddened when Neil's reputation suffered later in that decade because of the savings and loan scandals.  After Reagan got the GOP nomination, he picked Bush as his running mate, which after eight years in the position of vice-president put him as the favorite to represent his party in 1988.  Initially low in the public opinion polls, he eventually won the election over Democratic nominee Michael Dukakis in what I though was the dirtiest campaign I've witnessed up to that time...this I admit heavily prejudiced me against Bush as president, something that I never got over as I eagerly supported Clinton over him and rejoiced at his defeat for re-election in 1992.  Since he left office, though, I came to respect and admire George Bush more and more...I especially thought that his sky-diving in old age was extremely kick-ass! I'm sad he's gone now but I think he had a great run of a life...

As for George H.W. Bush's tenure as president from 1989 to 1993, there's good and bad stuff, the way I see it.  I was very disappointed that he vetoed the FMLA bill passed by Congress that would have given employees unpaid leave from their jobs due to more extended medical issues affecting themselves or their families...incoming president Bill Clinton quickly reversed that and signed the bill into law.  As far as foreign policy was concerned, he presided over the fall, first of the Communist Iron Curtain in Europe, the symbolic destruction of the Berlin Wall, and then the dissolution of the Soviet Union while presenting the United States as a unifying force seeking good relations with all parties.  Bush was also a war president, invading Panama in 1989 and liberating Kuwait from Iraqi occupation under Saddam Hussein during the Persian Gulf War in 1990-91...I appreciated his decision then to limit the conflict once the initial goal was accomplished, a course his son sadly chose to abandon two years after he assumed the presidency ten years later.  I also give him high marks for signing into law the Americans with Disabilities Act, something I wonder whether anyone representing his party would do in our political climate of today. With the United States Supreme Court, he nominated David Souter and Clarence Thomas, the former surprising many with his more liberal-than-expected orientation and the latter turning into a stalwart conservative judge with predictable rulings almost always in lockstep with the Republican Party's positions on issues.  The other son of his, Jeb, served credibly as Florida governor for two terms and I thought he would be an obvious choice for president in 2016 until Donald Trump's taunts and insults against this good, decent man resonated with the disturbing meanness of many Republican voters and his campaign quickly faded...

May George Herbert Walker Bush rest in peace and God's blessings and grace be upon his family during this time of mourning and beyond...

Weekly Short Stories: '40 Sci-Fi, Part 4

This week I completed reading (again) the science fiction anthology Isaac Asimov Presents The Great SF Stories 2 (1940), which features short stories that editors Asimov and Martin H. Greenberg deemed that year's best. There was one, though, near the book's end that I didn't exactly think stood up to the high standard of being "great"...more on that later.  Here are my reactions to the four final entries...

FAREWELL TO THE MASTER by Harry Bates
If you've ever seen the movie The Day the Earth Stood Still (I only saw the 1951 masterpiece), with Klaatu the alien emissary and the terrifying giant robot Gort his "enforcer", you might be interested that it derived from this short story, one with a completely different plot sequence, its robot Gnut not anywhere as destructive, and the final message a complete surprise.  In Farewell to the Master, the Earth is not being warned from beyond...no, Klaatu and Gnut's mission is one of friendly initial contact gone horribly wrong when the former is accidentally shot to death upon arrival by an undisciplined trigger-happy soldier (this happens at the beginning, no plot spoiling here).  How Gnut reacts to this is revealed by the story's human protagonist, an unstoppable reporter named Cliff Sutherland.  The memorable closing line in the story notwithstanding, I still prefer the movie, which probably frightened me more as a child than any other I've seen, then or since...and I have no plans to watch the more recent version as it almost certainly will be a big disappointment in comparison...

BUTYL AND THE BREATHER by Theodore Sturgeon
This is a follow-up sequel to Sturgeon's humorous tale Ether Breather from the previous year, with the attempts to be funny still there but without the innovation the earlier story introduced.  Since the compelling mystery of who was playing the practical jokes on color TV broadcasts is already solved, I found myself looking to the story's last page to see how many more I would need to endure reading before it was all over.  I like Theodore Sturgeon's writing a lot...his It in the same anthology, which I discussed a couple of weeks ago, is a far better story...

THE EXALTED by L. Sprague de Camp
The author had an ongoing series of stories around this time centering on Johnny Black, a talking bear that has been made intelligent by eccentric scientist Ira Methuen through special treatments. In this story, Methuen has given himself the same treatments in hope of enhancing his own intelligence.  It works, but the resulting "genius" thinks he has figured everything out and has decided that nothing really matters, and spends his time devising machines to play practical jokes on those around him.  Can they reverse the process and bring Dr. Methuen back to his old, reasonable self? Johnny has the solution, which is utterly hilarious.  This story and the series it belongs to would probably fit well as a late night series on the Cartoon Network...

OLD MAN MULLIGAN by P. Schuyler Miller
In the 1939 sci-fi anthology there were two stories about Neanderthals, one of them about such a man who had survived the eons to this day (incidentally authored by the previous story's L. Sprague de Camp).  Old Man Mulligan is another of these, with Mulligan the Neanderthal who seems to have participated in just about every historical event and who is continually referring back to them, challenging to fights anyone accusing him of being a liar.  The setting is novel: Venus of the future, in its early stages of exploration and settlement.  The warm, humid planet of mid-twentieth century imagination, dominated by vast seas and steaming jungles...unlike what we know about it now...is a fertile location drawing pioneers from Earth.  Unfortunately, our worldly corruption has followed us there as well, and a seedy character named Hanlon has kidnapped the daughter of the planet's ruling Regent and deposited our cast of heroes out on a rock in the middle of the monster-infested sea, all naked...including old Mulligan.  Leave it to our experienced Neanderthal to make like MacGyver and
deftly bring everyone to safety and redemption.  One of my favorite tales from this book, and quite funny, too...

Well, that's it for the year 1940...next week I'll start with stories from Asimov's "1941" anthology...

Tuesday's List: 2018 College Football Bowl Schedule

Over the past few years I have become more of a college football fan and less of the pro leagues.  It was great seeing my University of Florida team rebound, with their new head coach Dan Mullen, from last year's awful season: they're in the Top Ten and going to a major bowl, the Peach Bowl in Atlanta on December 29.  Unfortunately, the school they're playing is Michigan (again, ugh), which has a 4-0 record against the Gators head-to-head and routed them 41-7 in 2016.  Well, maybe this game can have a different outcome...maybe Florida will win, maybe not: I just want them to be in the game and play on a high, competitive level...

Since I plan to watch a lot of football later this month, I though I would be self-serving and put out a list of the bowl games by date and time (ET) with the teams and the TV network broadcasting them.  I deliberately left out the corporate sponsors from the names.  I got the schedule from the NCAA website, so they're on the hook for its accuracy.  Well, here's that schedule, to which I plan to frequently return to in the coming weeks...


CELEBRATION (12/15, Noon): Atlanta, GA, ABC
North Carolina A&T vs. Alcorn State

NEW MEXICO (12/15, 2 pm): Albuquerque, NM, ESPN
Utah State vs. North Texas

CURE (12/15, 2:30 PM): Orlando, FL, CBSSN
Tulane vs. Louisiana

LAS VEGAS (12/15, 3:30 pm): Las Vegas, NV, ABC
Arizona State vs. Fresno State

CAMELLIA (12/15, 5:30 pm): Montgomery, AL, ESPN
Georgia Southern vs. Eastern Michigan

NEW ORLEANS (12/15, 9 pm): New Orleans, LA, ESPN
Middle Tennessee State vs. Appalachian State

BOCA RATON (12/18, 7 PM): Boca Raton, FL, ESPN
Northern Illinois vs. Alabama-Birmingham

FRISCO (12/19, 8 pm): Frisco, TX, ESPN
San Diego State vs. Ohio University

GASPARILLA (12/20, 8 pm): Tampa, FL, ESPN
Marshall vs. South Florida

BAHAMAS (12/21, 12:30 pm): Nassau, Bahamas, ESPN
Florida International vs. Toledo

FAMOUS IDAHO POTATO (12/21, 4 pm): Boise, ID, ESPN
BYU vs. Western Michigan

BIRMINGHAM (12/22, Noon): Birmingham, AL, ESPN
Wake Forest vs. Memphis

ARMED FORCES (12/22, 3:30 pm): Fort Worth, TX, ESPN
Houston vs. Army

DOLLAR GENERAL (12/22, 7 pm): Mobile, AL, ESPN
Troy vs. Buffalo

HAWAI'I (12/22, 9:30 pm): Honolulu, HI, ESPN
Louisiana Tech vs. Hawai'i

FIRST RESPONDER (12/26, 1:30 pm): Dallas, TX, ESPN
Boston College vs. Boise State

QUICK LANE (12/26, 5:15 pm): Detroit, MI, ESPN
Minnesota vs. Georgia Tech

CHEEZ-IT (12/26, 9 pm): Phoenix, AZ, ESPN
TCU vs. California

INDEPENDENCE (12/27, 1:30 pm): Shreveport, LA, ESPN
Temple vs. Duke

PINSTRIPE (12/27, 5:15 pm): New York, NY, ESPN
Wisconsin vs. Miami

TEXAS (12/27, 9 pm): Houston, TX, ESPN
Baylor vs. Vanderbilt

MUSIC CITY (12/28, 1:30 pm): Nashville, TN, ESPN
Purdue vs. Auburn

CAMPING WORLD (12/28, 5:15 pm): Orlando, FL, ESPN
Syracuse vs. West Virginia

ALAMO (12/28, 9 pm): San Antonio, TX, ESPN
Iowa State vs. Washington State

ARIZONA (12/29, 1:15 pm): Tucson, AZ, CBSSN
Nevada vs. Arkansas State

PEACH (12/29, Noon): Atlanta, GA, ESPN
Florida vs. Michigan

BELK (12/29, Noon): Charlotte, NC, ABC
South Carolina vs. Virginia

ORANGE (CFP NATIONAL SEMIFINAL) (12/29, 8 pm): Miami, FL ESPN
Alabama vs. Oklahoma

COTTON (CFP NATIONAL SEMIFINAL) (12/29, 4 pm): Arlington, TX, ESPN
Clemson vs. Notre Dame

REDBOX (12/31, 3 pm): Santa Clara, CA, FOX
Oregon vs. Michigan State

MILITARY (12/31, Noon): Annapolis, MD, ESPN
Virginia Tech vs. Cincinnati

LIBERTY (12/31, 3:45 pm): Memphis, TN ESPN
Missouri vs. Oklahoma State

HOLIDAY (12/31, 7 pm): San Diego, CA, FS1
Northwestern vs. Utah

GATOR (12/31, 7:30 pm): Jacksonville, FL, ESPN
North Carolina State vs. Texas A&M

SUN (12/31, 2 pm): El Paso, TX, CBS
Pittsburgh vs. Stanford

OUTBACK (1/1, Noon): Tampa, FL, ESPN2
Mississippi State vs. Iowa

CITRUS (1/1, 1 pm): Orlando, FL, ABC
Kentucky vs. Penn State

FIESTA (1/1, 1 pm): Glendale, AZ, ESPN
LSU vs. UCF

ROSE (1/1, 5 pm): Pasadena, CA, ESPN
Washington vs. Ohio State

SUGAR (1/1, 8:45 pm): New Orleans, LA, ESPN
Texas vs. Georgia

CHAMPIONSHIP GAME (1-7, 8 PM): Santa Clara, CA, ESPN
Semifinals Winners

Just Finished Reading Furyborn by Claire Legrand

Author Claire Legrand has begun the Empirium fantasy trilogy for young adults with the 2018 book Furyborn.  Once again it's an imaginary world loaded with magic, history, war, and flawed characters searching for their identity and direction...ho-hum.  The narrative is split between two women, Rielle and Eliana, as their lives take place a thousand years apart.  Rielle's time is permeated with magic, and she possesses enough special abilities that others suspect her of being the fulfillment of a two-part prophecy: is Rielle the much-hoped-for Sun Queen who will rescue the world for its people, or is she the much-dreaded Blood Queen who...well, that title can't bring with it very much good.  A thousand years later young Eliana, with special hidden talents, finds herself in a world depleted of magic and working as a paid assassin for the much-feared Emperor.  Although her acts are atrocious, her motives are pure: to save her own family from persecution and death.  How these two manage to get through their trials, the people they meet...especially their love interests...and the complicating presence of "angels" form the body of the narrative.  Rielle's fate seems sealed at the start of the book and her subsequent narrative is presented in the form of a flashback.  Eliana, on the other hand, has an open future and seems to hold the key to everything: exactly who is she, anyway?

After I finished Furyborn, I read some of other readers' reactions on the Internet.  It seems that folks either liked it a lot or they hated it.  To me, though, it's just a story, well-told, that falls into the common fantasy fiction trap of spend too much time discussing rules of magic and the world's intricate concocted history.  Well, I knew it was just a trilogy and not a long series before I began it, and Book Number Two is coming out in 2019...so I won't have to wait long (and forget everything I read) before I can continue the series.  I am interested in the characters and, although this isn't my favorite series by a longshot, it's good escapist reading...despite me not being a "young adult"...

My Visit to the US Capitol's Senate and House Chambers

This past October Melissa and I traveled to Washington D.C. and spent much of our time touring the area.  On Wednesday the 25th we walked across the Mall to the U.S. Capitol building, walked in though the eastern visitors entrance, went through the expected security check, and enjoyed their guided tour which included a discussion of the many statues there as well as the various large historically-themed paintings ringing the Rotunda.  But I wanted more: being an avid C-Span viewer, I wanted to see firsthand what the Senate and House of Representatives chambers looked like from their upper galleries.  An employee there helpfully informed us that we could get passes for the Senate gallery...and possibly even for the House...by stopping by the office of one of our two Florida senators.  Seeing that Marco Rubio's place, in the nearby Russell Building, was much closer than Bill Nelson's in the Hart Building, we set out there, entered this vast building, and promptly found ourselves totally lost, going up and down the labyrinth of long hallways and following misleading signs.  Eventually, though, we managed to stumble upon Rubio's office...the senator wasn't there, Congress being out of session at the time...but it was full of happy, friendly staffers, one of whom graciously reached into a drawer and pulled out Senate and House gallery passes for each of us: Senator Rubio, I'm not a big fan of your politics, but your staff rocks! We returned to the Capitol visitors entrance and were now informed that we had to stand in line outside, several paces from the entrance, and endure scrutiny (including by a sniffing security dog) before we were incrementally allowed in and repeat the security check.  Then we went to the Senate gallery doorway and walked in after showing a guard our passes. And there it was, just like I was used to seeing on C-Span-1: the chamber below, albeit empty of senators.  A guide was in the process of talking about the history of the Senate chamber, this particular room being used since 1859, just before the commencement of the Civil War.  We enjoyed the time sitting there and sat through the next presentation.  Then we walked around to the House side, where they went bonkers with security: we had to leave our cellphones...along with anything remotely of an electronic nature, including simple earphones...in a special room and then had to undergo ANOTHER security gauntlet, this one much more invasive than the one for entering the Capitol building.  After that, the line of visitors was gradually, again through small increments, allowed into the House of Representatives gallery looking down upon the familiar scene I see on C-Span whenever it is in session.  Yet here there was no one to present historical information about this very important place: I felt a bit bummed out about it, although I did enjoy just sitting there looking around.  Apparently, the Senate gallery wasn't originally scheduled to be open that day and we got in there without the security inspection. The heightened security might have been partially due to the fact that during that day there was a terrorism alert going on about those mail bombs that were sent to prominent Democrats and their supporters, probably accounting for the added scrutiny after we had returned to the Capitol with our passes...

The opening picture of the Senate chamber from the gallery isn't one I took, picture-taking from the gallery being banned for our visit, but is from the U.S. Senate website.  It does look like what we saw that day, though...it's funny seeing a place like this in person for the first time, yet feeling like I've been there for years. Incidentally, we were told while in the Senate gallery that the senators (along with the representatives on their side of the building) enjoy an underground subway system that transports them directly from their office buildings to the Capitol, where they can quickly access the floor for votes and speeches.  The Senate offices are on the Capitol's north side, across from Constitution Avenue, in the Russell, Dirksen, and Hart buildings while the House of Representatives offices are on the south side, across Independence Avenue in the Rayburn, Longworth, and Cannon buildings.  I wonder what it's like being a senator, taking the subway to the Senate floor from your own office building: must be pretty cool...

My November 2018 Running Report

November saw my running picking up, clearly coinciding with the cooler weather conditions here in northern Florida.  I had anticipated running in one or more races...there were two half-marathons and a 10K event held during the month in Gainesville. Because of scheduling conflicts, a problem with registering for one of the races, and/or health issues I managed to skip all of them.  Yet it was a more successful running month for me than previous ones, with my total accrued distance of 76 miles, peak daily runs of 14 and 7.2 miles, and 6 days taken off from running.  I've been faithfully traversing my personally-designed training routes around my own subdivision and the adjacent one: yesterday morning I covered 7.2 miles in this manner and plan to adhere as much as possible to that distance each day, schedule and weather permitting.  A week from now there's a 15K race in eastern Gainesville...I'll probably wait until it is almost upon me before I decide whether to enter it.  I attribute much of my recent improvement to the new running shoes that I purchased from a local running store after their manager analyzed my running style...I've also been doing recommended stretching exercises before running that have helped me, too.  So at this writing I'm feeling optimistic about my running...ultimately I want to run in local 15K and half-marathon races scheduled for January and February, respectively...

Quote of the Week...from Ray Bradbury

Writing is not a serious business.  It's a joy and a celebration. You should be having fun with it.
                                                                    ---Ray Bradbury

Ray Bradbury (1920-2012) was one of the great science fiction writers of the twentieth century, penning books like Fahrenheit 451, The Martian Chronicles, Something Wicked This Way Comes, and Dandelion Wine among others.  But my favorite work of his was the short story The Pedestrian, an eerily prophetic piece that hit me close to home...read it through this link to Internet Archive.  It's obvious that Bradbury loved to write, but that does not mean that he didn't really take it serious. I think his above quote was meant to say that it's okay to enjoy writing stuff for its own sake...and that he's very serious about this viewpoint!  I'm kind of like that with this blog of mine: it's a joy and celebration...and fun.  But it does require a bit of mental concentration and effort, and to that extent, it is serious...at least while I'm actively engaged in the process of writing.  But although Ray Bradbury made quite a career for himself with his literary output, he correctly implies...as I see it...that writing with the primary motivation to earn money from it isn't a very good idea, nor is it necessarily fruitful to expect other people to all want to read I've written and eagerly anticipate what I'll do next.  No, writing should be done primarily as a self-motivated activity that justifies itself...no harm, though, in allowing for that possible fame and fortune as a bonus by-product...

11/25 Sermon on Wisdom, Part 5

Last Sunday here at The Family Church in Gainesville Pastor Sean Taylor, who is our praise and worship music leader, delivered the final message in the ongoing series on Wisdom, based on the Old Testament book of Proverbs.  The sermon's title was Path to Wisdom and the scripture of focus was Proverbs 9:10: The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding...

Pastor Sean structured his sermon around the following points: the path to wisdom begins with the fear of the Lord, which is about reverence and awe as well as fear...and that fear should result in trembling at his word and hating evil. We will understand this spiritually healthy fear when we welcome the words of Godly wisdom, store up his commands within us, train our ears to hear wisdom and gain understanding, and cry out for insight and understanding. Sean concluded by pointing out that fearing the Lord will lead us to knowledge of the Holy One, who is Jesus, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and understanding, and who extends his invitation to us.

You can view this thought-provoking sermon, which contains so much good material beyond my perfunctory summary, by clicking on the church's YouTube video website: [TFC Videos]. The Family Church, located at 2022 SW 122nd Street, holds its Sunday morning services at 9 and 10:30, featuring praise and worship music lead by Pastor Sean, the weekly message, and opportunities for prayer, fellowship and joining small groups and discipleship classes help at other times on Sunday and during the week.  There is also a hospitality room adjoining the entranceway where you can get some free coffee and meet and chat with some very friendly people.  Senior Pastor Philip Griffin will be returning next Sunday for a new series...

Weekly Short Stories: '40 Sci-Fi, Pt. 3

I continued my reading of the science fiction anthology Isaac Asimov Presents The Great SF Stories 2 (1940) with five more tales from that year, all of which I had previously read...

VAULT OF THE BEAST by A.E. van Vogt
Van Vogt is an author noted for his complicated, convoluted stories, often making a mockery of the time travel theme commonly found in science fiction.  Although that isn't present here in this story, the notion of beings living in vastly different "speeds" of time is examined, and the mathematics at the end is bizarre, to put it lightly.  The essence of Vault of the Beast consists of a shape-shifting, sentient robot sent to Earth to find a great mathematician capable of breaking the code to a vault on Mars imprisoning a monstrous beast from another system.  Is the prisoner really a monster or rather a misunderstood alien scientist living in a different time frame?  After all the confusing twists, I began not to care...

THE IMPOSSIBLE HIGHWAY by Oscar J. Friend
A biologist, at the prodding of his assistant, goes on a hiking trip with him in the Ozarks...they promptly get lost.  As they walk on, they suddenly encounter an extraordinary, smooth highway leading to nowhere.  They begin to walk down it and encounter exhibited specimens of Earth life in their chronological order of evolution, presented much the way a museum would.  Eventually, after many exhibits of specimens from eons past, they get to the present time...and an open, empty exhibit for "Twentieth Century Man".  The subsequent behavior of the biologist...and why he does what he does...is, I believe, the driving force behind this absurdly strange tale...

QUIETUS by Ross Rocklynne
Two highly-evolved, intelligent alien bird creatures from another world are at work traveling through the cosmos, studying planets and searching for other intelligent life forms and to help them if they can.  They reach an Earth of our future that has undergone cataclysmic upheaval...only a thin strip of greenness is left visible from space, indicating that maybe here there may still be life.  Meanwhile, a young man dwelling there, with a talking crow to accompany him, is convinced he is the only human remaining.  One day, though, he sees another person skulking about...and it is a young woman.  Naturally, just as everything is about to come together, so to speak, the do-gooder aliens arrive on the scene and gum up the works...

STRANGE PLAYFELLOW by Isaac Asimov
Strange Playfellow, originally titled Robbie but changed by a magazine editor to which it was submitted, was Isaac Asimov's first of his many positronic robot stories.  The setting is way off into the future, in 1982 if you can imagine such a distant time. Robots are a burgeoning industry and a father buys Robbie to serve as a playtime companion for his little daughter...but mother does not approve, claiming that the robot could go berserk if its circuits broke down.  A battle of wills ensues over Robbie between the two parents, but little Gloria is strong in her adoration for her mechanical friend.  When mom wins out, that's when the drama intensifies until the ending, which is heart-turning...

THE WARRIOR RACE by R. Sprague de Camp
A group of human space explorers travel to Proxima Centauri, become very militaristic and disciplined there, and then return to Earth and take over.  The rule of the Bozos, as they are called, over the Earthlings, is generally benevolent but rigid and uncompromising.  Resentment builds and armed uprisings occur, which are brutally suppressed.  But a couple of Americans (naturally) who attended the same history class on Ancient Greece, Baldwin Dowling and Arthur Hsi, learn from their professor how the warlike Spartans were finally brought down...and the two set out to corrupt their unwelcome overlords.  I think I saw an original Star Trek series episode in which pretty much the same strategy was used against some aliens from the Andromeda Galaxy that had taken over the Enterprise.  But that show was from 1967, I think, and de Camp's story precedes it by 27 years...

Next week I'll cover the final four stories from Asimov's 1940 science fiction anthology...

Tuesday's List: My Favorite Sufjan Stevens Songs

Sufjan Stevens is an American musician, recording albums since 1999, whose music usually falls in the independent/alternative genre...but my local alternative rock station, 100.5 WHHZ, never played any of his songs.  It wasn't until 2009, after that station had lamentably switched its format to hard rock, that I sought out alternative stations on the Internet...and heard my first Stevens tune, his biggest hit Chicago.  Then I checked out YouTube and realized that this was a very talented, inspired artist and began to collect his albums.  The greatest works of Sufjan Stevens were his Michigan and Illinois albums: he lived for a time in each state and they provided the historical, biographical, and spiritual themes for the tracks.  By the time I was aware of his music, Stevens had been going through a drought of output, partly due to what he has said was an undiagnosed chronic nervous ailment.  I don't care as much for his recent works, although his 2015 Carrie and Lowell album was very good.  I'm very skeptical about the bigshot music celebrities nowadays who get all the publicity and acclaim...here's someone whose music is much better than anything I've heard on the Grammys or MTV Video Awards...

And so, here's a list of my top thirty favorite Sufjan Stevens songs, each entry followed by its album...

1 DETROIT, LIFT UP YOUR WEARY HEAD...Michigan, 2003
2 JACKSONVILLE...Illinois, 2005
3 CASIMIR PULASKI DAY...Illinois
4 NIAGARA FALLS...Michigan, 2003 (bonus track, and no, it is not in "Michigan"))
5 FOURTH OF JULY...Carrie and Lowell, 2015
6 COME ON FEEL THE ILLINOISE...Illinois
7 ADLAI STEVENSON...The Avalanche, 2006
8 FLINT...Michigan
9 DECATUR...Illinois
10 PITTSFIELD...The Avalanche
11 CHICAGO...Illinois
12 SHOULD HAVE KNOWN BETTER...Carrie and Lowell
13 ALL GOOD NAYSAYERS, SPEAK UP!...Michigan
14 THE HENNEY BUGGY BAND...The Avalanche
15 CONCERNING THE UFO SIGHTINGS...Illinois
16 IMPOSSIBLE SOUL...The Age of Adz, 2010
17 JASON...A Sun Came, 1999
18 FOR THE WIDOWS IN PARADISE...Michigan
19 DEATH WITH DIGNITY...Carrie and Lowell
20 I WALKED...The Age of Adz
21 YEAR OF THE DOG...Enjoy Your Rabbit, 2001
22 IN THE DEVIL'S TERRITORY...Seven Swans, 2004
23 DEAR MR SUPERCOMPUTER...The Avalanche
24 BLUE BUCKET OF GOLD...Carrie and Lowell
25 THE AVALANCHE...The Avalanche
26 I WANT TO BE WELL...The Age of Adz
27 ARNIKA...All Delighted People
28 OH GOD, WHERE ARE YOU NOW?...Michigan
29 THE UPPER PENINSULA...Michigan
30 THE BLACK HAWK WAR...Illinois

Some Comments About My Running

At the start of November I had big plans for my running, with three local long-distance races available to enter: the Tom Walker Memorial Half-Marathon on the 11th, the Cupcake Half-Marathon (or 10K if I chose that distance) on the 18th, and the Turkey Trot 10K on Thanksgiving morning, the 22nd.  I didn't run any of them, for various reasons.  I did accomplish a 14 mile practice run earlier in the month (taking very small, slow "old man" steps) and since Thanksgiving have begun a regular morning regimen of running the course I designed, up and down streets in my subdivision and the neighboring one, time constraints and weather permitting.  My basic course is 3.3 miles long...I made an agreement with myself that the bar for success is to simply cover the course, be it through running, walking, or a combination of the two.  So far I've mixed my running with a little walking at the start while during the second half I've run the rest of the way.  My goal is to progressively lengthen the course until I reach seven miles, which I want to make my daily, regular training distance.  This will put me within easy shot of any of the distances I like for future races (10K, 15K, and half-marathon).  There is a 15K event scheduled on Saturday, December 8th in SE Gainesville, but I'm not exactly enthusiastic right now about entering it...we'll see.  My main current goal is to establish a better outdoor running routine...the cooler weather couldn't have arrived at a better time...

Congrats to 2018 Gator Football Team

The 2018 University of Florida football team finished its regular season yesterday afternoon with a convincing 41-14 road win against rival Florida State.  First year head coach Dan Mullen has transformed this team into a cohesive, disciplined unit that not only is capable of coming from behind against its opponents but also one that is capable of bouncing back from defeat, avoiding the terrible late season slides of other Gator teams in the past few years.  Sophomore quarterback Feleipe Franks is obviously benefiting from Mullen's instruction as his play has markedly improved from last year...I expect more improvement in 2019.  And the defense, although having lost several starters to graduation, has still carried this team to several victories.  They finished 9-3, with a Southeastern Conference 5-3 record that included an upset of LSU.  Now we are waiting until this evening when the New Year's Day bowl invitations are issued...Florida stands a good chance of being included in the picture.  Before this season I remarked that all I wanted from this 2018 edition of UF football was that the offense substantially improve, that they play competitively in all their games, and that they are good enough to go to a post-season bowl game.  I'm happy to say that, with the exception of that awful Missouri game, all the above has been fulfilled.  Go Gators...

CORRECTION:  Oops, of course the bowls won't be decided until next weekend's conference championship games!

The Trump vs. Roberts Controversy

It's tough for me with Donald Trump as my president.  On one hand, I happen to agree in principle with some of the things he is trying to accomplish, particularly in building up our national defense and protecting our borders...this I believe is a Constitutionally-mandated role for him as our country's civilian commander-in-chief.  On the other hand, his arrogance, narcissism, and nastiness towards those who disagree with him makes him as a kind of villain in my mind, someone whose presence in the Oval Office is a detriment to our national interests.  Case in point: he has a legitimate responsibility, in my opinion, to protect our borders from the "caravan" of people traveling from Central America and through Mexico to our national border.  The Ninth Circuit of the Federal Judiciary, however, blocked him from keeping asylum seekers from entering the United States...prompting him to go into a Twitter rage, putting down those judges as Obama appointees, as if that in itself makes them illegitimate.  United States Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts responded by calling him to task for his inappropriate comments, stating "We do not have Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges.  What we have is an extraordinary group of dedicated judges doing their level best to do equal right to those appearing before them." And this is what bugs me so much: President Trump is probably right in his accusations about the Ninth Circuit judges, but he also has deliberately sought to politicize the courts with his own appointments, which are rubberstamped by conservative think tanks like the Heritage Foundation and the Federalist Society.  Roberts himself was no doubt appointed because of his conservative political orientation and has usually "delivered the goods" for his conservative backers in Supreme Court decisions.  You can claim that the judges are "independent", but this does not necessarily mean that they cannot be biased...and in my opinion they usually are when decisions of a politically partisan nature are involved: all of the federal judges are political appointees.  So while Chief Justice Roberts put out a dignified, restrained and appropriately worded statement expressing what I believe to be an erroneous viewpoint, President Trump for his part has done little of a positive nature to promote a position which I believe has some good points. It's very frustrating rooting for policies that are being promoted by a president who seems clueless about persuading others...

Quote of the Week...from Willie Nelson

When I started counting my blessings, my whole life turned around.     ---Willie Nelson

If you've grown up with someone intent on always seeing the down side of their experiences and of the people around them, it's tempting to adopt that model for yourself and become overly negative.  But as the great musician Willie Nelson stated above, it's important to counteract that insidious, pervasive cynicism with gratitude, i.e. a recognition not only of the things that have been blessings, but also for the different people who have been there and made life better.  Willie is now 85 and going on strong...at 62 I'm looking more and more at people who are a generation older than me and who seem to have made a sort of peace about their own lives and their place in society.  And one common trait for many of these survivors seems to be that they have adopted an attitude of gratitude.  I'm sure that Willie Nelson continues to encounter offenses and setbacks, and problems are all sorts assuredly continue to befall him as do they us.  But you've got to see the big picture and realize that life is a great gift to be relished and appreciated...instead of habitually reciting a list of personal grievances and grudges, how about instead come up with one of blessings, following Mr. Nelson's wise example...and keep it a daily habit, not just on Thanksgiving...

11/18 Sermon on Wisdom, Part 4

Last Sunday at The Family Church here in Gainesville, senior pastor Philip Griffin continued his ongoing series about wisdom, focusing on the book of Proverbs.  This message, titled Handling Money God's Way, examined how people can get sidetracked with their attitudes toward money and how God intends for us to manage it.  The scripture references, which you can read through Bible Gateway are Proverbs 3:9-10, 11:25, 11:28,  21:5, 21:20, 22:7, and 23:4-5...yes, there are an awful lot of passages about money in this book of wisdom...

So how does one handle money God's way?  Pastor Philip structured his answer around six points: live by a spending plan, save for the future, avoid the debt, put God first in my finances, trust in God, not money, and don't expect money to make me happy.  Philip started out by noting that even those of us in the United States who have a relatively low income would be considered very wealthy measured on a worldwide scale...I'd only qualify that claim by noting that in other places the costs of living are often also much lower.  Regarding spending plans, many are encouraged in our consumer society to buy on impulse...but as our pastor noted, this will lead to poverty.  Better to be more careful and systematic about where we put our money.  Statistically Americans, as Pastor Philip continued, compared with other countries, save very little or nothing...most are only two paychecks away from being homeless.  But God wants us to gather money and set it aside little by little.  With debt, the borrow is a slave to the lender...it also stands as an obstacle to giving as well as being a major stressor in relationships.  And with giving, Philip noted, God does not need our money, but rather it is us who, by our giving, rightfully put him above everything else.  Trusting in anything more than God is making that thing our god...and with many, money is their god.  And happiness is not a goal, but rather a natural by-product of trusting in God's provision and living to glorify him...seeking happiness in itself is a fruitless venture...

You can watch Pastor Philip's message through the church's YouTube video website...just click on the following link: [TFC Videos].  The Family Church meets each Sunday morning at 9 and 10:30 and is located at 2022 SW 122nd Street.  Each service features the sermon, praise and worship music, and prayer and fellowship.  I'm looking forward to this Sunday...