Happy Fourth of July

Whoopee, I'm off from work!  Now that I got that off my chest, let me just wish you and your loved ones a happy American Independence Day.  Stay safe with the firecrackers and on the road.  As a dear recent president would say on many occasions, "God bless you, and God bless the United States of America."  And may I just interject one little word of advice to those getting carried away with politics and perceived conspiracies: set aside a little, teensy-weensy bit of time in your hectic schedule to try first to get your facts straight, and then to try to see things...if only for a couple of minutes...from the other guy's point of view.  I think if enough folks did that, it would make my beloved country stronger and healthier...whad'ya say, all you patriots out there?

Podcaster Spells Out Ten Mistakes Language Learners Make

Although I've only recently been listening to Steve Kaufmann's podcast, I have access to many he's done in the months before I heard of him.  Kaufmann is a polyglot...he speaks some 20 languages at last count...who founded a subscription-driven website, LingQ, that uses his techniques of language learning and offers it to others: I recently signed up and like it.  One of his earlier podcasts, from a couple of months ago, dealt with mistakes that language learners make.  Listed, they are:

(1) Expecting you can learn fast (don't have unrealistic expectations).

(2) Expecting to never forget words or grammar patterns you have learned (but learning is itself a process of forgetting and relearning).

(3) Trying to master the grammar rules in detail up front (nothing wrong in looking them up from time to time, though).

(4) Expecting the language to become clear too soon (patience, patience).

(5) Sticking with learning content that is too easy (good for review but need to challenge with more difficult material).

(6) Thinking you can get by with just a few words (once a native speaker starts to talk back to you then you'll realize you need to learn a lot more).

(7) Thinking you should speak well even if you don't speak often (it takes a lot of practice).

(8) Being afraid of making mistakes when you speak (Kaufmann just came back from Poland where he gave two interviews IN POLISH and laughed about all the mistakes he made).

(9) Speaking with only non-native speakers (non-native speakers tend to limit the range of their vocabulary).

(10) Dealing with the challenge from native speakers when they want to practice their English on you (either find some willing to speak in your target language or make an arrangement to alternate languages with those wanting to speak English).

Steve Kaufmann impressed me by his emphasis on the gradual assimilation of large amounts of words by reading and listening.  From time to time, I'll let you know how I'm doing on the LingQ site...

Sad About Loss of Late-Night Business in Gainesville

My work shift ends at 10 PM, and sometimes I like to chill out a bit at a coffee shop before heading on home.  Unfortunately, my hometown of Gainesville, Florida has, ever since COVID-19 hit us in 2020, become one of those places that roll up the sidewalks in mid-evening, with very few late-night spots left open.  I used to frequent a couple of Starbucks on the southwest, UF student-intense part of town that is close to my workplace.  Now they're closed by the time I get off from work, although rumor has it that the Target store on Archer Road has a Starbucks in it that still stays open late...I'll have to check it out.  Gainesville used to be known as an all-night kind of city, especially with its tens of thousands of University of Florida students as well as a sizeable Santa Fe College population.  When I was a student at UF in the late 1970's I spent many late hours studying at the 24-hour Krystal on University across from the library.  Except for Waffle House, though, in the northern part of Gainesville where I live everyone closes up shop far earlier than before.  There used to be a 24-hour district just north of Gainesville High School on NW 13th Street (US 441) that had all-night restaurants, a pharmacy, a doughnut shop and a couple of grocers...none of the places there now stay open late except convenience stores.  It's a shame, because that's one of the things I liked living here.  I'm not greedy about places staying open late: just give me to 11 o'clock and I'm out of there! Shoot, before COVID I could slip over to a Publix on Archer right near where I worked and replenish groceries, but no longer.  Now, not even the WalMart where I live, formerly 24 hours, stays open past 11...

My June 2023 Running and Walking Report

This past month has been a bit of a trial regarding my running and walking...halfway through I experienced some back trouble that not only sidelined me from most any strenuous exercise but also made me miss work.  I'm still in recovery, so I'm afraid that not much will be happening in early July...and at the end of the month Melissa and I will be going out of town on vacation.  So, I don't see myself returning to a regular routine in running and walking...and that includes any races...until after the first week in August at the very earliest.  As for early June, I ran Gainesville's Depot Parkrun 5K on the 3rd and 10th, and occasionally visited my local gym after work to do treadmill jogging and speed-walking work...I reached a sustained 5 mph speed with the latter.  Of course, when I do return there in August or later, I will need to resume my training at a lower level...but I'm optimistic.  In any event, right now my running has taken a necessary back seat to my walking due to my back recovery. But I still intend to participate in local fall running races like the Florida Track Club's 10K event in October followed by a half-marathon in November. And when I'm ready to go back to Depot Park for their Saturday morning runs, I'd like to continue with a least one race each month being a full walk with the rest being runs...

Quote of the Week...from James T. Kirk

The answer is "no"...I, therefore, am going anyway.     

---Admiral James T. Kirk, Star Trek III: The Search for Spock 

I was always a big fan of the Star Trek original television series...it pained me that early on in its run my parents insisted on watching Bewitched on our one TV set from 8 to 8:30 Thursdays, directly opposite hour-long Star Trek's first half.  So, for some time I knew a lot of episode endings, but not what led up to them.  After finally realizing what a popular cash cow the series was, somebody had the sense to start a movie Star Trek series, albeit more than a decade after the original series was unceremoniously cancelled in 1968.  The third of these, The Search for Spock, is the sequel to the second, The Wrath of Khan, in which Leonard Nimoy's character Spock willingly sacrifices his life to save the starship Enterprise and her crew.  Unknowing of Spock's Vulcan customs, Kirk (played by William Shatner) releases his friend's casket to a soft landing on the strange, distant planet Genesis. Later Spock's father berates him for not reuniting the body with Spock's spirit, which he had given Dr. McCoy (Deforest Kelly)... yeah, I know this is getting a little weird.  Long story short, Kirk wants permission from his superiors in Star Fleet to return to Genesis and retrieve Spock's body...but he is denied because of the controversy surrounding that planet.  So, he walks up to his all-star skeleton crew and delivers the above quote.  I used it today because, well, in life sometimes you have a decision to make, and sometimes it goes in the direction of defiance and not compliance.  As individuals each of us has choices that can determine where we want to go in our respective lives.  It may be tempting to look "sideways" at someone else who is taking a different path than us, especially when that path seems to keep crossing our own from time to time.  Then it's tempting to fall into the trap of comparing ourselves to others and to begin to doubt our own resolve.  I can guarantee you this: no matter what you do or not do, there is always somebody out there who will criticize your decision, and sometimes even get nasty about it.  Then again, on the positive side of all this, there's another "Jim" I'd like to quote: the musician Jim Croce, who sang in his hit I Got a Name, "I've got a dream, I've got a dream.  Oh, I know I can share it if you want me to.  If you're going my way, I'll go with you"...  

Just Finished Reading The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss

The past few weeks I've been exploring podcasts and videos...Timothy Ferriss has a podcast, as well as a best-selling book titled The 4-Hour Workweek.  In it he makes the claim...backed up by his own recounted experiences...that people don't need to limit their lives to the ordinary, humdrum routines of nine-to-five jobs or careers that spill over into their private lives with homework, emails and the like.  No, it's possible to fashion their own lifestyles, and to his credit, Ferris doesn't just leave it there with a lot of vague, positive exhortation: he gets down to the nitty-gritty of the self-liberation process, spelling it all out step-by-step.  The dude is obviously super-intelligent...I've heard his podcast as well, and sometimes I felt while reading this book that his message was for someone with mental faculties far beyond my own.  Part of the book's premise is to convince the boss that working remotely (for me at least) is more productive than working on-site, allowing for my freedom of movement and even extended travel abroad.  Another part is how to delegate my remaining work to others while I soak up the sun in some exotic dream place or climb mountains or whatever suits my fancy.  While I applaud Ferris' attention to detail in explaining how this can be accomplished, I do have a problem with his sales pitch for this book.  Back in the 1990s I experienced a similar argument from an Amway meeting I was invited to attend.  The idea then was that all you need to do is get enough hard-working folks "under" you and then you'll be freed to go ice-fishing in Canada or do whatever you want.  I even heard a coworker tout the company as an alternative to the "dead-end" job we were working.  I think there is a personality type out there, a restless soul who is prone to travel addiction and sees hopping on planes to this place or that as an absolute necessity when they want to appraise the quality of their own lives.  The notion of tending to a steady job, being good at it, and more or less staying in one locale while occasionally traveling to fun spots is, to them, a kind of surrender...I, on the other hand, don't feel the need to follow suit.  The 4-Hour Workweek encourages deception on the job in that the employee has to convince their boss that their performance in person is markedly worse than when they are away from the office...that, to me is unethical.  There's also another problem: like in the classic Broadway show and movie titled You Can't Take It with You, everybody in the featured Vanderhof family lives in their roomy house doing whatever they want...but they still depend on the paid, structured labor of others, including their own housekeepers.  When Mr. Ferriss is visiting all his exotic places, I'm sure that he is constantly around others engaged in their employment which support his adopted lifestyle...does he think they're all losers in dead-end jobs?  I tend to see all this in a more universalist light, believing that while it's good to improve your living conditions...including allowing for more travel and fun...life in all its different levels of perception, struggle, and relationships is much more complex and interesting than the way this book's author presents it, even if he is one bigshot smartass son-of-a-gun...

Weekly Short Stories: 1991 Science Fiction, Part 8

Today I conclude my look at 1991 science fiction short stories as they appeared in the Gardner Dozois-edited anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction, Ninth Annual Collection. Here we go...

JACK by Connie Willis

Best of today's four stories, in my opinion, it's England during the Battle of Britain in 1940 when the Nazis bombarded it relentlessly.  The civil defense is spotlighted here, and one of their more difficult tasks is to search bombed areas for survivors buried beneath the rubble.  Enter a mysterious man who has an uncanny ability to find them, even when there seems to be no evidence of their presence.  This fascinating story seamlessly transforms into another genre and asks the question: just who is the monster here?

LA MACCHINA by Chris Beckett

This is a robot story naturally set in a future where they have taken over the traiditonally menial jobs in society. Looks like there is a renegade robot running loose, one who "thinks" on a higher level of complexity and betrays a sentient nature. The protagonist hunts it down...but isn't ready for the paradigm shift about robots at story's end. This one kind of reminded me of Asimov's robot stories...

ONE PERFECT MORNING, WITH JACKALS by Mike Resnick

Here is a prequel story to Resnick's 1988 Kirinyaga...press on the title to read my reaction. It's about the Kikuyu leader Koriba who emigrates from his native Earth...and from his hopelessly transformed homeland in Kenya.  And it's also a story about a father and his grown son parting ways. A brief bittersweet tale...

DESERT RAIN by Mark L. Van Name and Pat Murphy

A sculptor transplanted from her beloved San Francisco area to the despised southwestern desert after getting married to a man deeply involved in computers and artificial intelligence is introduced by him to Ian, whose digital presence surrounds her in their home while hubby is gone most of the time. It's easy to guess where this is all going, but what impressed me was how the author back in 1991 understood AI devices like Alexa and others like "her".  On the other hand, didn't the breakthrough movie 2001: A Space Odyssey anticipate it all 24 years earlier with Hal?

Next week I begin the next book in the Gardner Dozois sci-fi anthology series, covering the year 1992...

Steve Kaufmann Weighs In on Passive vs. Active Vocabulary in Languages

Steve Kaufmann, whose LingQ website I use as a subscribing member, speaks some twenty languages to varying degrees and has his own ideas about how to learn languages.  He strongly emphasizes the building of a large passive (listening and reading) vocabulary as the foundation upon which a smaller subset of active vocabulary (speaking and writing) can grow.  His philosophy is that communication is the main function of language and that making mistakes (and learning from them) is a necessary element of the learning process.  I understand his take, for during my own limited excursions in trying to converse with native speakers in their own languages, I would usually start it out by saying something simple I just learned.  Then, the other speaker would come back at me with words I've never learned...of course, since I was going at it without first developing a substantive passive vocabulary to draw upon.  Some of these language learning businesses get on TV and show somebody going to a foreign country ordering food or giving the taxi driver their destination with flawless pronunciation...as if that somehow proves they can now fluently speak their target language.  I've been using Steve's LingQ and am very satisfied with it and hopeful that my progress will lead, in a reasonable period of time, to passive near-fluency in the languages I'm studying.  He also has his own self-titled YouTube channel...check it out and see if he doesn't make a lot of sense...

Podcaster Discusses Self-Displine

Last week personal development coach Rob Dial listed and discussed seven ways to help his listeners practice self-discipline.  He brings up a good point: when is practicing self-discipline bad for you?  Well, the only thing I could think of is that maybe some folks want to inculcate what they think are helpful habits when they actually are detrimental to them.  Other than that, I'm on board with Dial's message.  In a sentence, his seven suggestions are: 

(1) In a task, focus on the opportunity it brings instead of the obligation going with it...almost any endeavor contains both elements.

(2) Do the small things and fundamentals really well "day in, day out". This syncs with James Clear's notion of "atomic habits".

(3) Design your environment to make your action/discipline easier.  For example, if you're trying to lose weight then don't stock up on sweets and other comfort foods.

(4) Move your body, being physically active either with sports or exercise.

(5) Employ the "Countdown 5-4-3-2-1" method on any difficult task that involves crossing a threshold you're hesitant about...Dial says the momentum helps push you to take the necessary action.

(6) Ask yourself how you can make this disciplined action easier.  This to me sounds a lot like (3), and Dial didn't elaborate on it...maybe we can whittle it all down to six suggestions!

(7) Get an accountability partner, either one on is doing the same general thing as you or is a very annoying, persistent individual who will refuse to let you off the hook if you slide.  And be ready in return to serve that person as their accountability partner if so asked.

A lot of this I'm sure I've already written about from previous Mindset Mentor summaries on this blog.  But that's good: I totally dig overlapping and redundancy when it comes to personal development...

This Recent Weather Sucks...More to Come

Although today's temperatures skyrocketed here in Gainesville today, I did enjoy the break from the storms and sporadically torrential rain we've been experiencing for well over a week.  But it was too good to be true: I checked my phone weather app and they're predicting more bad weather next week and the first few days of July, with this Wednesday for some reason giving us a break (although it's supposed to get up to 95 that day).  I'm quite accustomed to the summer pattern weather around here, where each day as the temperatures spike the blue sky gives way to puffy cumulus clouds...and then come the thunderheads bringing winds, thunder, lightning, rain and cool relief.  Doesn't seem as if we're getting this kind of weather, though...at least not yet.  Also, I didn't think we'd already have three named Atlantic tropical storm systems before even reaching July, but here we are: I wonder if it's too early yet to utter the words "hunker down" (with the AC set to max)...

You Shoulda Heard This Joke

 

Looks like our little puppy Daisy is overcome with mirth...we're always joking around.  But no, I just caught her in mid-yawn on this recent lazy day loaded with bad weather, including heavy rain, keeping her inside...and curled up on the recliner.  When we first got her at a pet adoption fair at PetSmart in May of '22 she was only seven pounds...but we then believed that she could grow to be 60 or higher at full weight.  But Daisy Dewlop, as Melissa, her human mommy, likes to call her, stabilized at 41 lbs.  She's quite a vocal character who has a mission to fight squirrels, birds, bugs, lizards...and trucks.  Humans, dogs...and especially humans with dogs...are okay when she's looking out the window at home, though: they may pass! Yet she's still pretty skittish and tense while in the car or out in public, barking up a hysterical storm when she spots people and other dogs close by.  We are training her to overcome her anxiety, though, and respond more readily to our commands.  Daisy is definitely a great blessing to us.  Below is a shot of her, with her "cousin" Kairi (our daughter Rebecca's dog) on lookout duty at our front window...

Quote of the Week...from a Fortune Cookie

Many a false step was made by standing still.      ---Fortune Cookie

I lifted the above "fortune cookie" quote straight out of the book I'm currently reading, The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss.  It's full of some pretty interesting quotes, and I find just about all of them profound, yet riddled with caveats...including this one. I think that you need some discerning wisdom to determine when, in the midst of a situation, to act and when to lay back...especially when it comes to speaking truth to people.  Since the book I'm reading is a pretty serious call to action, though, the author's intent is to get people to be bolder in taking initiatives in their lives...and doing the many little things that can bring about the fruition of their dreams. There's another quote in this book that says to do at least one thing each day that scares you.  Well, both fear and hesitation can be good or bad things, depending on your circumstances and what you're trying to accomplish.  I think first you need to figure out what you want and come up with a rough plan in which to direct yourself to it.  Then, action...as well as facing obstructive fears...is definitely in order.  But I also think it's important to wisely choose your battles in life and to develop a sense of contentment and gratitude as well, an appreciation of this present moment.  It's all a matter of balance...    

Constellation of the Month: Corona Borealis

 

Corona Borealis, although a small constellation, is easy to spot in the June evening sky at northern temperate latitudes...if the skies are clear, that is.  It's situated between Boötes to its west (left) and Hercules to its right (east), with the rough u-shaped crown studded with stars...a very easy pattern to make out.   Easily the brightest star in Corona Borealis is Alphecca (also called Gemma), a binary system about 75 light years from us.  The simplest way to find Corona Borealis in the sky is to first find Arcturus, easily the brightest star in this part of the night sky and go a little up (north) and to the left (east) from it.  Corona Borealis is, in English, the Northern Crown, and it is fun to see as it passes directly overhead: maybe an hour or two before or after it hits the zenith might be the preferred observation time to avoid straining your neck! Now we're officially entering the summertime, and if you can stand the mosquitos, enjoy clear skies and are free of obstructing streetlights, then get hold of a star map and see how many summer constellations you can recognize...Corona Borealis should be one of the more obvious ones to find.  

Next month: another constellation...

Weekly Short Stories: 1991 Science Fiction, Part 7

Here are my reactions to four more short stories appearing in the Gardner Dozois anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction, Ninth Annual Collection, spotlighting the editor's picks from the year 1991.  In only University of Florida head football coach Steve Spurrier's second year there, with Shane Matthews as quarterback, they won the Southeastern Conference championship in 1991 with a perfect league record, unexpected losses to Syracuse and Notre Dame keeping them from national title hopes that year.  The Gators had "won" the SEC back in 1984 but scandals involving then-coach Charley Pell forced them to vacate the title.  Spurrier would go on to win six total conference championships during his twelve-year tenure at UF...pretty impressive!  But back to those stories...

POGROM by James Patrick Kelly

In a dystopian, decaying near future, society is sharply divided between the fearful and insulated elderly generation and disadvantaged, often violent youth.  Ruth, one of those elderly, embarks on a tense and terrifying trip across the city to visit her friend Matt, a teacher who was recently severely beaten by a young gang.  This story is applicable to many situations today, I'm afraid to say.  Especially when folks overreact in scenarios calling for cool-headedness and restraint...

THE MOAT by Greg Egan

A multi-layered story set in Australia when rising sea levels are submerging entire Pacific islands and sending their inhabitants to Australia as widespread popular sentiment weighs in against accepting them.  Weave this narrative in with the notion of a special, secret human genetic strain that guarantees immortality from disease, and you have a somewhat disjointed tale that points the accusing finger at the superwealthy elite for manipulating the ignorant masses against the refugees...while they have their own genetic "moat" against all of them...

VOICES by Jack Dunn 

This story has more of a Ray Bradbury feel to it as boys in a small town discuss what happens at death and one of them says the dead had spoken to him.  To test this, they sneak into a funeral home where a boy they didn't know from another town was lying.  What happens when they try to reach him...you can read it to find out.  But I've a feeling that the author was presenting his own ideas about death in this very readable and compelling story...

FOAM by Brian W. Aldiss

In the near future, an academic is researching old churches is in Hungary where he is beset by a former colleague who claims that the previous ten years of his memory was wiped clean (FOAM: free of all memory) and that he was going to a Budapest clinic that promised restoration...but would his friend help him out by going to fill in some gaps to the past.  The narrator complies, realizing too late after the fact that this was a setup and that he, too, now had vast memory gaps.  The story mixes this narrative in with ongoing commentary on the decline of organized Christianity and an ongoing war between Russia and the West.  It's all good reading but I couldn't fit these three threads together into a coherent pattern...

Next week I conclude my look at the year 1991 in short science fiction...

Just Finished Rereading Carrie by Stephen King

Carrie, from 1974, was Stephen King's first published novel, paving the way to his close identification with the horror genre in fiction.  I first read it before 2007 when I began this blog...hence, no review until today, after I have just reread it.  It's not my favorite King book by a longshot, but it does touch upon a theme that the author and I both seem to have sensitivity toward: teenage bullying and the often-indifferent attitude that adults witnessing it take, as if the victim were the culprit, not the aggressor.  Carrie White, the title character, is a shy girl, dominated by her nearly insane religiously fanatical mother as she unsuccessfully tries to socially fit in her high school, in the small fictional Maine town of Chamberlain.  Susan Snell sympathizes with Carrie and asks her own boyfriend Tommie to ask Carrie to the senior prom.  But other classmates, bent on revenge for their punishment after mocking Carrie's onset of menstruation in the girls' shower...a very traumatic event for her...have their own ideas concerning Carrie for the prom.  What results is very definitely horror, with telekinesis (the ability to move objects with one's mind) a major factor.  The 1976 Carrie movie starring Sissy Spacek as Carrie presents the narrative chronologically, but the book treats the events from a future date looking back, as an assemblage of investigative articles and analyses...King then inserts key narrative passages in between these to present an interesting collage where the reader knows what ultimately happens early on while the movie viewer experiences more building suspense to the climactic scene.  Like I said earlier, Carrie is not one of my favorite King novels, but since I'm going back to his longer works that I hadn't yet discussed, this seemed to be a good opportunity.  But I think he's come out with a lot better stuff than this although his depiction of the psychological makeup of bullies in this story was right on target...

Pain is Here, But Blog Goes On

It's been a while since I missed a daily entry in this blog...this past weekend I skipped both Saturday and Sunday.  The reason's simple: I'm riding out a period of constant and recurring physical pain, a type of which I've experienced in the past and which I'm hoping and praying will end soon...yes, I'm seeing a doctor.  But life goes on, and so does this blog, which I've always defined for myself as a writing exercise and discipline. It's also a good way to work out various issues in my mind, be they personal, societal, or news items. Sometimes I'll sit down to address a topic and find myself changing my point of view as I write, the process itself aiding me in my reasoning.  For that reason, along with many others, I encourage you to start a blog of your own...tailoring it to your own special interests, of course.  Back during the decade before Facebook came along, personal blogs were the rage on the Internet...I loved randomly going through others' blogs and reading their stuff, especially the ones whose writers shared my interests.  But personal blogging diminished significantly after mega-social media sites sucked in so many people that they became the places to go on the Web...and many blogs ended or were never started.  I plan to keep on with my blog as long as I am able and Google keeps it going...hope you enjoy it...

Quote of the Week...from Oscar Wilde

There is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.

                                                              ---Oscar Wilde

Late nineteenth century Irish novelist and playwright Oscar Wilde is probably best known for his book The Picture of Dorian Gray, and he has a lot of witty things to say about this thing and that.  As for the above quote, I'm assuming I'm not to take it literally for I can come up with a lot of things in life worse than being talked about.  But I get what Wilde is trying to say here...let me expand upon it a bit.  It seems that in today's world, more than ever before, people at large are letting themselves get caught up in two seemingly diametrically opposite offenses. On one hand they are obsessed with privacy about their personal lives and while in public are sensitive to anyone passing their low threshold of what constitutes undue attention.  But on the other hand, they want to be known by others...in a good sense, of course...with their sense of self-worth tied in to how attractive their appearance and personality shows in public...and being ignored is offensive.  I just saw a social media post laying out a number of ways someone can determine whether another is stalking them in their gym...then saw an ad for my own gym that emphasizes how one can use it to make their bodies look like those of professional models, an obvious appeal for those prospective customers wanting to turn others' eyes toward them.  Social media is kind of peculiar in this regard, too, with the clamor for privacy always a major beef among various sites' users...yet they're using the sites to come out into the public arena, aren't they?  I have come to believe that while privacy is a legitimate and major concern for people to have, the fear of a future in which everyone has forgotten them becomes worse...as Mr. Wilde so eloquently stated.  I think people in general are unrealistic in that they want to control who pays attention to them and talk about them, while if they are realistic about it they will acknowledge that there's always going to be some unwelcome reactions to their presence and message  Still, there's a limit to what I'll put up with on this blog with some past trolls...you don't have to agree with me but you also don't have to be a jerk about it...   

Just Finished Reading Talking to Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell

Talking to Strangers, from 2019, is the third book I've read by journalist Malcom Gladwell...the other two are Blink and The Tipping Point: click on the titles to read my reviews from this blog.   I first became aware of Talking to Strangers a couple of weeks ago when Melissa and I were browsing through a now-rare local used bookstore...Book Gallery West if you must know.  Stepping up to the cashier for our purchases, the customer at the counter was purchasing just the book I'm reviewing today: I stepped out of character and had a pleasant chat with him and the cashier, thinking that Gladwell would be happy to see me "talking to strangers".  But after I checked out his book on Libby and began to read it, it became soon clear that this was no "overcome social awkwardness" how-to book.  Gladwell's major premise is that there are embedded biases in human interaction that, while they tend to ensure a more orderly and peaceful flow of social discourse, from time to time they also create some serious problems.  One is what he calls "default to truth" whereby there is a bias toward believing in someone's honesty, often in spite of the objective outside evidence...Neville Chamberlain's belief in Adolf Hitler concerning Czechoslovakia in 1938, the many flimflammed by con investor Bernie Madoff just a few years ago, and the difficulty some American intelligence professionals had in concluding that a woman working for them was a double agent for Castro's Cuba are just three of the examples he presents of this bias going terribly wrong.  Then Gladwell goes on to discuss another bias, that of "transparency" whereby society has constructed standards of outward social behavior that supposedly tell when someone is being honest or not...he uses an episode of the TV sitcom Friends to illustrate when people are acting transparent...and thus presumably believable.  He then claims that many, however, while still being honest, do not necessarily abide by the sometimes-arbitrary rules of transparency, citing as an example the case of Amanda Knox, a young American woman falsely accused and convicted...later released...for the murder of her roommate in Italy after many thought her demeanor was untransparent and therefore suspicious.  Finally, the tragic case of Sandra Bland, who was arrested after a spurious traffic stop in Texas and later committed suicide in jail, ties together the author's thesis regarding defaulting to truth and transparency.  This time, he claims the policeman on duty should have defaulted to truth with her and not allowed his perception that she wasn't being transparent influence his judgment, which created an escalating conflict leading to the unnecessary arrest.  I, on the other hand, have a different take on it: the dude was a complete @$$hole, full of his own sense of power and dominance.  I clearly get where Malcolm Gladwell is going in this book...I see folks strangely following and believing every word of scoundrels like Putin and Trump nowadays and wonder when they decided to flush their critical thinking abilities down the toilet.  But the same people don't "default to truth" when they regard Zelensky or Biden, so I think this is more the case of them being prideful and stubborn with their own viewpoints.  What I'd like to see is a book where Gladwell takes his earlier "Blink" and "Tipping Point" theses and integrates them thoroughly with the ones he propounds in this book.  Talking to Strangers was interesting, but I don't always agree with the author's conclusions...

Weekly Short Stories: 1991 Science Fiction, Part 6

And so once again I am discussing some short fiction from 1991 as it appeared in the Gardener Dozois anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction, Ninth Annual Collection.  My life that year was dominated by work and family.  With work, my employer that year opened the floodgates for overtime...at least for those requesting it, and I was among the ones on the list.  With family, it was Melissa, me, and our infant son Will...and four if you include our little poodle Taffy.  Life was sometimes tiring, sometimes trying, but ultimately rewarding.  But enough about my life, let's talk about the lives of people who never existed except in their authors' imagination...

A WALK IN THE SUN by Geoffrey A. Landis

This is a great "old school" hard science fiction story, reminiscent of Robert Heinlein's classics, dealing with an emergency on the moon.  An astronaut is the only survivor of her craft's crash landing there, and to beat the odds with her dwindling supplies and the setting sun threatening her solar powered energy supply, Trish sets out in the moon's low gravity to keep up with it...the "ultra" in ultra-long racing, both to keep up with the sun and last until her rescuers can reach her...

FRAGMENTS OF AN ANALYSIS OF A CASE OF HYSTERIA by Ian McDonald

The title does little to explain this harrowing tale of a young Jewish woman who meets a young pre-World War I Hitler, undergoes a "ratty" experience at a mysterious Vienna nightclub and ultimately hides with her family from the Nazi persecution.  Very compelling and historically interesting...

ANGELS IN LOVE by Kathe Koja

More of the genre of horror short fiction I would expect from Stephen King, a woman hears strange sounds coming from the apartment next door...she thinks it's lovemaking with something mysterious but whatever, it's keeping her awake when she's already having trouble sleeping at night.  One day she has an opportunity to see what's really going on...not for the squeamish...

EYEWALL by Rick Shelley

On a distant planet dominated by mostly ocean with very frequent super-hurricanes, a meteorologist and his team are sent from an Earth recently devastated by a strong series of hurricanes to test methods of controlling them, using this planet's storms as test subjects.  The people stationed there, including a Japanese staffer strongly against ever using atomic explosions for any reason, are cold to their presence...especially when they discover that the researchers' plan to detonate a fusion hydrogen bomb in the eye of one hurricane.  To discuss the ethics of this adequately I would need to take up more writing space, but let's just say that I'm not totally on board with where the author was leading here...

Next week: more sci-fi from '91...

Podcaster Gives His Feelings about Money

Podcaster Rob Dial, on his show Mindset Mentor, recently gave his own take about the meaning of money for him...and naturally extended his conclusions to what attitudes each of us should have about the subject.  This in itself raises little warning alarms within me, for in our diverse society based in large part on economic freedom, that is, the liberty to decide what you do with your money, widely differing decisions folks make have combined to create the most prosperous economic culture in history.  Dial presents his own experiences...he makes no secret of the fact that he is one of those travel addicts, especially enamored with Italy.  I have no problem with this except that he seems to think we should all follow his footsteps in this regard, promoting his conclusions like a true evangelist.  The truth is that he found in his life a nice little money-making strategy for himself, worked very hard to achieve his goals and has become financially independent: good for him, nothing wrong with that!  I don't think, though, that his experiences are completely translatable to the population at large, even the much smaller body that tunes in to his podcasts.  Dial says that while being responsible about how we manage our money, we shouldn't be like Scrooge in treating it like wealth itself...by itself money is valueless, useful only in what it can bring us.  And to Rob Dial, whose financial blessings in his life have pretty much guaranteed him an easy retirement with plenty of moolah to fuel his every desire, he apparently interprets being careful with finances, to the extent that most of us are with more limited incomes and resources as we plan for our later years, as a mistake.  At least that's how I see it.  I travel, too, but I don't just pick up whenever I want and spend weeks somewhere across the world...if that's what you like to do and you have the resources to do it, then be like Rob Dial and do that: I'm happy for you.  This fits in with what I had earlier termed "our diverse society based in large part on economic freedom".  And I know of several people who have limited incomes and means and must be very careful about their finances.  So, although I deeply understand the "you can't take it with you" mentality of Dial's podcast about money, I felt he was a bit flippant and insensitive about the wide range of circumstances people find themselves in regarding it...