Weekly Short Stories: 1997 Science Fiction, Part 3

It's once again that time of week when I discuss what I've been reading in the world of short fiction. I'm currently going through the year 1997 and the Gardner Dozois anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction, Fifteenth Annual Collection, highlighting the genre from that year. As has been the case in this series, Dozier as editor shows a predilection for longer "short stories" and novellas. Here are my reactions to the next two appearing in the book...

WE WILL DRINK A FISH TOGETHER by Bill Johnson

This is a quirky alien contact story set in, of all places, Indian country in South Dakota. The high-level human security officer, originally from that culture, is assigned to protect the alien ambassador to Earth.  He has a conflict of interest...his brother has died and he decides to quit rather than miss his funeral and burial. It's all about keeping true to one's "line", and the story gets further complicated when the wolverine-looking ambassador shows up at his local bar. A fun read...

ESCAPE ROUTE by Peter F. Hamilton

Full of impressive "hard" science fiction technical talk, this novella is set far in the future when humanity, still prone to war, oppression, capitalism and rebellion, has reached out and settled (and exploited) other star systems.  An enterprising private starship captain takes on a special collaboration with some shady characters to harvest precious metals ..and discovers an ancient alien outpost. Full of intrigues and plot twists, this story...in my humble opinion...tried to do a little too much...

Next week I plan to continue with sci-fi from '97..

Listened to a Couple of This Year's Albums...by The Smile and Green Day

After writing on yesterday's article about how I wanted to check out some of this year's music, I started out by listening to The Smile's Wall of Eyes album.  The Smile is for all practical purposes a kind of Radiohead band, with that group's Jonny Greenwood and vocalist Thom Yorke teaming up with drummer Tom Skinner to produce what is essentially Radiohead music.  Greenwood wanted to produce more material and his original band was going too slow...hence The Smile.  Two songs I liked a lot from Wall of Eyes: I Quit and Read the Room.  The other album I began listening to was from another, more established trio: the punk rock Green Day's Savior, and its opening track is a piece I've already heard: The American Dream is Killing Me.  It's refreshing to hear good old fashioned rock with the heavy guitar riffs and Billy Joe Armstrong's trademark working class voice, but the opening lyrics for that song were especially gripping and true: "The American dream is killing me, the American dream is killing me, when it's all double talk and conspiracy".  The song continues along this line, spelling out a grim assessment of where people in our country have come down to...my instincts tell me, though, that this is a worldwide phenomenon: the insanity has spread!  I didn't care too much, though, for the rest of this album: onward to the next of several from 2024...

Time to Check Out Some Good Music from 2024

After Melissa showed me how I can use our Amazon Prime to get Alexa to play commercially-uninterrupted music on my phone, I've been using most of 2024 so far focusing on my favorite acts, like Radiohead, Led Zeppelin, the Beatles, the Who, Regina Spektor, Seals and Crofts, Electric Light Orchestra, Yes, Rush, and Metric...just to name a few.  Should I decide to focus on one artist or group, I can now pretty much listen to their entire discography this way...very convenient.  But one consequence of this great opportunity has been that I haven't exactly been keeping up with music of 2024, that is, songs that will mark this year for me in my memory.  So, it's still July with a lot of time left in '24, and I think I'll check out the new albums released so far by artists I like...should be interesting.  It's worked well for me in the past this way...in 2023 I discovered my favorite songs for that year this way, including my "Song of the Year" for 2023: Oil by Gorillaz.  Time to look for some more musical magic!

Beryl Poised to Hit Texas Coast

At this writing early Sunday evening, Beryl is still a strong tropical storm, predicted to reach minimal hurricane status just before it makes landfall on the Texas coast between Corpus Christi and Galveston early tomorrow morning.  I had written in a previous article that I intended to follow Atlantic tropical storms more this year after it was predicted to be an unusually strong season. Beryl earlier had been a Class 5 Hurricane, attaining at one point sustained 165 mph winds at its center, as it churned westward through the Caribbean.  In its wake Beryl has been blamed for 11 deaths so far, and it caused widespread damage in the West Indies, especially in the Grenadines and Jamaica, before hitting Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula and passing through it greatly weakened.  There are predictions of strong storm surge as the storm intensifies and eventually goes ashore.  And then there will be a lot of flooding as Beryl's remnant makes its way inland.  I had the TV on The Weather Channel all day and have enjoyed watching their meteorologists like Paul Goodloe and Molly McCollum...among others...presenting their live reports along various places on the Texas coast, Paul at Rockport and Molly in Corpus Christi...

Difficult, Hilly Course on Recent Melon Run

Not to belabor the point, but that Melon Run at Westside Park on Thursday the Fourth did take a lot out of me, and I was wondering why.  After all, I have been more or less doing 5K runs at Depot Park each week under similar weather conditions.  And then it hit me: of course, the terrain for the Melon Run course is almost constantly sloping, if not outright hilly!  With the finishing time I had under those circumstances, there is no doubt that I doubly exerted myself, much more than with those Depot Park runs.  I'm doing fine now and, although I'm still planning to emphasize more walking in the near future with my races, I know myself well enough to know that I'll probably throw in some runs as well.  But the Dog Days of Summer are definitely here, and I'm definitely grateful for the air conditioning we've been blessed with...

Quote of the Week...from Friedrich Nietzsche

All truly great thoughts are conceived by walking.                    Friedrich Nietzsche

Once in college I wrote a paper about the great nineteenth century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche.  Before I turned it in, a fellow student who expressed his liking for Nietzsche asked me if he could read it.  Afterwards, he disdainfully handed it back, giving me an unpleasant expression and walking away...I don't think he ever spoke to me again.  I guess I should have been walking when I wrote that paper...but I did at least get a "B" on it, and my teacher stayed on good terms with me.  As for walking, I have gradually come to believe that not only is it good for thinking, but as the ancient Greek health guru Hippocrates once wrote, it is the greatest medicine as well.  I say this as the summer here in northern Florida continues to set new records for combined heat and humidity, and after I ran a blistering three mile race at Gainesville's Westside Park. I probably should have walked it instead, for although I felt fine immediately thereafter, a few hours later my legs were both cramping up awfully and my general recovery was slow.  I think that walking is great, and during the next two months plan to do my outdoor races as a walker, leaving my running during this period confined to the nicely air-conditioned indoors.  Besides walking for sport and exercise, I am also a habitual pacer, going up and down the floor thinking...it's always a good idea to have paper and pen handy when doing this...

Ran the Jack Gamble 3-Mile Melon Run This Morning

As in previous non-pandemic years, the Florida Track Club held its annual Fourth of July Melon Run, recently named in honor of Jack Gamble.  I've run the event three times before, the last one being quite a ways back, in 2016.  It is held at Albert Massey (Westside) Park)...at least that's where the race starts and ends with the course running around the block enclosing the park and then looping eastward down NW 8th Avenue past the uniquely picturesque outdoor planetarium, the walkway through Loblolly Woods Park, west down NW 16th Avenue, and finally returning down NW 31st Drive to the finishing line near the entrance to the park's pool.  Every year at this time the combination of summer temperature and humidity is stifling, and 2024 was no exception: 77 degrees, 94% humidity and 76 degrees dew point...ugh!  I didn't feel all that well this morning and was a little apprehensive about finding a parking space...no need for concern on both accounts: I quickly adjusted to the race and there were plenty of spaces, since I got there in plenty of time.  I started the course, hillier than my normal weekly Depot Parkrun 5K, holding a little back. But after a mile or so I cranked it up and finished strongly with a time of 26:55, better than anticipated.  There were a whopping 307 finishers in this race and the competition was fierce, with some of Gainesville's fastest runners...and walkers...participating.  I'm glad I went...click HERE to see the results...

Weekly Short Stories: 1997 Science Fiction, Part 2

Here is my second weekly installment of brief reviews from the Gardner Dozois anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction, Fifteenth Annual Collection, featuring the editor's picks of short sci-fi from the year 1997.  During that time I was in my tenth year working for the USPS, and this year happened to be a "kindler and gentler" period in which I was a manual letter clerk, throwing scheme and SCF mail on Tour I...don't worry if you don't know what I'm talking about, most of it is "insider" talk.  Anyway, how about those next stories...

STEAMSHIP SOLDIER ON THE INFORMATION FRONT by Nancy Kress

In this story of how a pervasively digital communications culture takes over a society that thinks itself as "normal", a man whose entire livelihood and relationships are entrenched in being "connected", is concerned about his teenage son, who doesn't seem to have the same inclinations and would rather just sit back and contemplate things.  What young Charlie does know is that his father's information age is about to be transformed into a new one with different priorities. Very applicable to our current times...with our next era hopefully as Charlie has envisioned...

REASONS TO BE CHEERFUL by Greg Egan

This is a great example of hard science fiction, where the story itself introduces the reader into a deeper look at real science, with a consequential deeper understanding of how reality works.  A boy has a brain tumor that causes an unchecked release in his brain of a chemical causing happiness...he is constantly ecstatic even with his state of dire peril.  After the successful operation to remove the tumor, that chemical's production is completely suppressed, leaving him in a chronic state of despair.  After years of this, as a young adult he musters up the courage to undergo a new treatment that could restore his happiness. He now must decide what, in his future, he will choose to be happy about...an intriguing question.  If you could so choose, what would you do? 

MOON SIX by Stephen Baxter

An astronaut on the Moon's surface keeps seeing heat shimmers that transport him to alternate realities with alternate Moons...and alternate human histories.  Two threads wind throughout the story. One is the nature of quantum mechanics and its relationship to alternate worlds...and the author's suggestion that a technology using it could backfire in that regard.  And the second is the massive area on the Moon's surface called Mare Imbrium, and the timing of the asteroid/meteor collision that caused it. I've read a lot of alternate reality stories...this one resonated with me, partially because it alluded to the needless suppression of manned space exploration in recent years as well as how space exploration technology has transformed our world...

Next week: more stories discussed from '97...

Popular Vote Winners in Last Eight Presidential Elections

Here are the popular vote winners in the American presidential elections since 1992.  Since we're supposedly a republic governed by the people's voice in democratic elections and a fair, unbiased system of laws, you might think that our policies and government would reflect the below trend...but you'd be wrong...

1992    DEMOCRAT

1996    DEMOCRAT

2000    DEMOCRAT

2004    REPUBLICAN

2008    DEMOCRAT

2012    DEMOCRAT

2016    DEMOCRAT

2020    DEMOCRAT

Now in 2024, do you think anyone really cares about what is going on in this campaign except within a small number of swing states like Wisconsin, Georgia, Michigan and Pennsylvania?  Because of our electoral college system, if you live in California, Texas, Florida or New York...our country's most populous states...no one cares about your opinion.  A losing president can call the chief elections officer of a state he closely lost and ask him to manufacture nonexistent votes to turn the results around, or the losing party can maneuver in states they lost...but legislatively control...to have those legislatures overturn those results.  Who cares what the rest of the country thinks, as long as they get their power.  Of course, as an individual my degree of influence is strictly limited, which is why I haven't been ranting and raving on this blog like others do on their social media outlets.  After all, we now have a Supreme Court that treats one side as its client interest: even if the doddering and incoherent incumbent nobody had a voice in choosing this year as the nominee wins those swing states, will they turn around and negate the results? Democracy is an illusion, both in Russia and now, sadly, here in America.  I have my own life, with the choices I can make that actually have effects on myself and my loved ones...electoral politics provide no hope in that regard...

Strong Hurricane Beryl Crosses West Indies

After seeing the early forecasts for an extremely active, dangerous 2024 Atlantic hurricane season, I decided to be more intentional on the blog with noting them.  Already in June we've had three named storms...Alberto hit Texas earlier with tropical-storm-force winds while causing some flooding in southeastern Texas.  Then Beryl, a trans-Atlantic storm, only a few days ago rapidly intensified into a strong hurricane...at this writing it's passing through the West Indian Grenadines...with Grenada on the south and St. Lucia and St. Vincent to the north...with a tightly wound center harboring maximum sustained winds of 150: a Category 4 storm unseen at this time of year...and its rapid intensification is unprecedented since records have been kept, both for the time of year and for its eastern Atlantic location.  Beryl's projected path currently has it crossing the Caribbean Sea and eventually hitting Mexico in the eastern Yucatan area, our cruise destination back in early March.  Meanwhile, while all the attention was on Beryl, Tropical Storm Chris was named just off the eastern Mexican coast around where Alberto had been, and then promptly moved inland and dissipated.  There's another disturbance, called Invest 96L, in Beryl's former path between it and Africa...it'll probably strengthen as well.  Since the waters down south in the Atlantic, Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico are all very warm, wind shear and land itself may be the only factors that can weaken these potentially monster storms.  More later...  

My June 2024 Running and Walking Report

In June I maintained my running and walking training, working out every day of the year and diversifying my activities.  My habit of doing neighborhood long distance run/walks had to take a back seat to the necessity of dealing with family medical issues, and I myself might find myself in the middle of one concerning me in the next few weeks...nothing is clear at this time, though. I ran inside my house, in the back yard, at the gym on the treadmill, and on the weekly Depot Parkrun 5K races.  I also speed-walked one of those races...I'd like to get in at least one 5K event per month in which I do that.  I think my gym treadmill strategy of briefly pushing ahead my limits in running and walking speed is working for me, improving that speed while providing some brief high intensity training.  In July I plan to continue what I did in June, working around "life" with my training and enjoying that life with Melissa...

Ran Gainesville's Depot Parkrun 5K This Morning

At 7:30 race time this morning, it was another very warm and muggy Depot Park, at 75 degrees and 96% humidity, as I ran the Depot Parkrun 5K, a free and volunteer-supported event held Saturdays there, a few blocks from downtown Gainesville.  As with last week, I first gave myself the option of going it slow as a "continuity" run because of the adverse weather, but once again when it started I went all out to run a fast race.  Unlike last Saturday, though, I started out a bit faster and it paid off with me getting a personal best out of my 48 Depot Parkrun finishes so far...at 27:01.  I know my mind is more on the pace than the distance when I drive away from there after it's over and realize that I hadn't heard any of the many beautiful bird songs I've grown accustomed to in this nature park. There were fewer people out there today, but still more than 100...plenty of room for more, and walkers are very welcome! This coming week I signed up for a Florida Track Club race I've run in years gone by, The Melon Run three-miler held each Forth of July at Massey (Westside) Park.  That's on Thursday morning, leaving the next Depot Parkrun two days later up in the air as to what I will do with it: Run? Speed-walk? Volunteer?  Guess I'll figure it out eventually.  Click HERE to see today's Parkrun results...

Quote of the Week...from Fred Lebow

In running, it doesn't matter whether you come in first, in the middle of the pack, or last.  You can say, "I have finished.'  There is a lot of satisfaction in that.                       Fred Lebow

I greatly enjoy checking out different channels I've subscribed to on YouTube...The Ageless Runner, hosted by "Ralph", who seems to be around my own age, is one of these.  Today he posted his favorite running quotes, the above one by Fred Lebow, the founder of the New York City Marathon, was appropriately his first.  Like me, Ralph and Fred are advocates for popularizing running...especially the long distance variety...among the general population.  Ever since high school, I have enjoyed this activity, or sport...however you might want to term it...because it is basically something I can tailor for myself as an individual and don't need others to accept or validate me in it.  I run races, to be sure, but not so much as against others in competition as much as against myself and my past performances...it lends a sense of structure and discipline to my running.  Although it's difficult to enter, the New York City Marathon also embraces its founder's philosophy, as the race doesn't close down even for the slower runners...or walkers, for that matter.  I run...and walk...to cover the distance, and like Fred's quote, how others do around me doesn't really add up to much of a difference.  But for the competitive folk out there, you also have a right to set your own standards and priorities for yourselves.  I'm just glad you're out there as well...

Chatting with AI Holds Promise for Future Learning, Etc.

Tonight I had a bit of a chat with Gemini, the AI application offered by Google. For all practical purposes I've decided that this might well be the way to go with my foreign language reading, as I can have Gemini generate any number of various sentences in whatever target languages I want, based around any particular topic I want to bring up.  I have a Rosetta Stone of Chinese, Russian, Spanish and English set up and ask Gemini to create, say, six sentences in them that have to do with my stated topic...I happened to pick "long distance running" as one.  So, here was the response:

1) Chinese: 参加马拉松比赛是我的梦想之一。(cān jiā mǎ la sōng bǐsài shì wǒ de mèng xiǎng zhī yī) 

Russian: Участие в марафоне - одна из моих мечт. (Uchastie v maratfone - odna iz moikh mechta.) 

Spanish: Participar en un maratón es uno de mis sueños. (Participar en un maratón es uno de mis sueños.) 

English: Running a marathon is one of my dreams.

2) Chinese: 长跑可以锻炼我的耐力。(cháng pǎo kěyǐ duànliàn wǒ de nài lì) 

Russian: Бег на длинные дистанции может тренировать мою выносливость. (Beg na dlinnye distancii mozhet trenerovat' moyu vynostlivost'.) 

Spanish: La carrera de larga distancia puede entrenar mi resistencia. (La carrera de larga distancia puede entrenar mi resistencia.) 

English: Long distance running can train my endurance.

3) Chinese: 今天天气很好，适合长跑。(jīntiān tiānqì hěn hǎo, shìhé cháng pǎo) 

Russian: Сегодня отличная погода для бега на длинные дистанции. (Segodnya otlichnaya pogoda dlya bega na dlinnye distancii.) 

Spanish: Hoy hace buen tiempo para una carrera larga. (Hoy hace buen tiempo para una carrera larga.) 

English: The weather is great today, perfect for a long run.

4) Chinese: 我正在训练参加半程马拉松比赛。(wǒ zhèngzài xùnliàn cānjiā bàn chéng mǎ la sōng bǐsài) 

Russian: Я тренируюсь, чтобы принять участие в полумарафоне. (Ya treniruyus', chtoby prinyat' uchastie v polumarafone.) 

Spanish: Estoy entrenando para participar en una media maratón. (Estoy entrenando para participar en una media maratón.) 

English: I am training to participate in a half marathon.

5) Chinese: 我和朋友们经常一起周末去长跑。(wǒ hé péngyoumen jīngcháng yīqǐ wèimó qù cháng pǎo) 

Russian: Я часто бегаю на длинные дистанции по выходным с друзьями. (Ya chasto begayu na dlinnye distancii po vykhodnym s druzyami.) 

Spanish: A menudo salgo a correr largas distancias los fines de semana con mis amigos. (A menudo salgo a correr largas distancias los fines de semana con mis amigos.) 

English: I often go for long runs with my friends on weekends.

6) Chinese: 我跑完步后感觉神清气爽。(wǒ pǎo wán bù hòu gǎnj覺 shén qīng qì shuǎng) 

Russian: После бега я чувствую себя бодрым и энергичным. (Posle bega ya chuvstvuyu sebya bodrym i energeticznym.) 

Spanish: Me siento renovado y con energía después de correr. (Me siento renovado y con energía después de correr.) 

English: I feel refreshed and energized after a run.

The parenthesized sections following each sentence lay out their pronunciation...especially helpful with the Chinese characters! These AI algorithms hold the promise to help me make great strides in my language learning and are easy to access and use for practice.  Also, they can quickly surpass the ability of ordinary search engines to explore the Internet for answers to problems I have about various topics.  As someone admittedly possessing a phobia about form-filling and dealing with bureaucracies on just about any level, I find this possibility very hopeful...

Weekly Short Stories: 1997 Science Fiction, Part 1

Today I begin a new anthology of short stories and novellas in Gardner Dozois' series The Year's Best Science...this one being the Fifteen Annual Collection and covering his selections from material published in 1997.  In that year...right after I turned 40...the expansion National League baseball team Florida Marlins improbably won the World Series in an exciting seven-game series against Cleveland.  Immediately afterwards, Marlins owner Wayne Huizenga chastised the south Florida fans for not supporting his team with their attendance and sold off his star players.  But even with that, they won the World Series again with a different owner, only six years later! In the 31 years of their existence so far, the Marlins never won their division and have the worst cumulative regular season winning percentage in the major leagues...yet they have two Series titles: two more, by the way, than Cleveland.  But on to the first stories I'm discussing...

BEAUTY IN THE NIGHT by Robert Silverberg

In our planet's near future, a very advanced and completely different alien race quickly conquers and subjugates Earth. In England, a boy who detests his negligent, deadbeat and abusive father has a differing view of the occupying creatures, who seem to have a fascination with the Stonehenge stone structures at Salisbury.  Thinking the aliens as being beautiful, he concocts a plan to rid himself and his family of the traitor father who is collaborating with them.  This story poses the question, "Who is the real enemy?".  Our protagonist finds his answer and I frankly thought his solution was brilliant.  But then again, Silverberg (still around at age 89) is a brilliant writer...

SECOND SKIN by Paul J. McAuley

A cloak and dagger spy story set in the outer reaches of our solar system, namely on Neptune's moon Proteus, a spy with special genetic modifications to alter his appearance as well as to gain longevity is assigned there from Earth to facilitate the defection of a famous scientist there: a woman he had once been married to.  Along the way, the nature of identity is examined, along with the sad supposition that as long as there is humanity, then there will also be war and intrigues.  But I didn't need this story to tell me that...

Next week: more from 1997...

Olympic Swimming Trials and Pool Training Access

I was watching the Olympic qualifying trials the past few days on NBC, primarily in swimming and running.  I couldn't get past the notion that with the former, the great athletes in these events were privileged to have easy access to pools to train in.  When I went to high school, you could tell that the good swimmers also had that kind of access to pools, and I didn't.  Now I'm 67 and with a gym membership touting its pool to swim laps in, and I have pretty much given up on the idea of ever having access to it with it being so crowded, even late in the evening.  Yet on a personal level I have to take responsibility for making time to get to a pool, whether it is waiting for long stretches at that gym or finding a way to use one of my two city pools when they happen to be open.  I'm still entertaining the notion of drastically improving my swimming form in the various standard strokes and integrating it all with my running as I age...but that pool access is still an obstacle, something that does not exist with my running or walking.  Of course, I'm talking training to a much more modest level than those championship swimmers, and they also merit their due respect for working hard and rising above their more limited and privileged group of competitors...

Just Finished Reading The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

I recently read the 1963 novel The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath.  I knew going in that both the author and the main character Esther Greenwood, her early-1950s young college student interning at a New York fashion magazine, had serious issues with depression and attempted suicide...Plath would take her own life soon after the book's initial publication under a pseudonym.  So I wasn't exactly expecting a walk in the garden reading The Bell Jar, but I was still nonetheless enlightened as to how people think in this state of mind.  Esther provides the first person narrative as she goes into clinical, cynical detail describing and evaluating the people around her, including her mother, men, her employer, her best friends...and just about anyone else she runs across.  Coupled with Esther's ceaseless criticisms of others is her increasing compulsion to commit suicide as she mentally rehearses different opportunistic scenarios for the deed. This is a pretty harsh tale as you might imagine, and I couldn't help but make a comparison to the Holden Caulfield protagonist of J.D. Salinger's novel The Catcher in the Rye, describing a similar social setting also set in the generally same time and place, only from a young man's equally cynical perspective...only Holden wasn't bent on ending it all.  I find in both characters' narration an extreme narcissism, as if everyone else was on trial for them to judge, and both were quick to condemn life in general.  I've been through adolescent depression...although untreated and never even remotely suicidal...and have experienced a similar rush to judgment about others and life.  I think these books expose a kind of thinking that plagues a lot of us, and that when we finally learn to allow ourselves the freedom to be our own individual selves and grant others their right not to be perfect, then some progress can be made for a happier existence.  I read The Bell Jar because it was one of the "great books" featured on a coffee mug I got a few months ago.  Compared to other books displayed on it, I have to admit to being a little disappointed...yet it does effectively get inside the mind of another in a way that few stories have been able to do.  Looking back on what I've written here, I don't want to sound harsh myself looking at Plath and her protagonist Esther...there's clearly a physical component to depression that some people are predisposed to, and which tends to cast great influence on their outlooks and consequential behavior...

Enjoyed Brief Daytona Beach Outing with Melissa

Yesterday Melissa and I paid an overnight visit to our favorite hotel in Daytona Beach, staying overnight and coming back to Gainesville this afternoon.  Although it was rather brief for both of us, we enjoyed being there...Melissa will be undergoing her first cycle of medical therapy later this week and it was good to be able to enjoy some good times at the beach.  Unfortunately, the weather didn't seem to want to cooperate with us as it was, even for this time of year, exceptionally muggy and uncomfortable as we sat on our high balcony looking out over the pool and beach.  No problem: we ratcheted up the room's air conditioner and kept the curtains open for our oceanfront view.  And now, onward to the week ahead... 

Ran the Hot, Muggy Depot Parkrun 5K This Morning

We've been blessed here in Gainesville to have one of the many Parkruns to participate in...originating in England, they're in many countries and states now.  And they're free, volunteer-driven: you just sign up online and get a barcode to take with you and scan after the race (5K) so your time can be posted on their site.  This morning I went out to Depot Park a few blocks south of downtown where it's held and was taken aback at the big crowd there, as well as the heat (76 degrees) and humidity (98%) at the 7:30 race time: not the formula for a fast run.  So I planned to do a "continuity" run instead, pacing myself and avoid getting overcome by the conditions.  Instead, I did a brisk run around the park and had a pretty decent finishing time of 27:41...click HERE to view the posted results.  And now, on to the rest of the weekend! 

Quote of the Week...from Sijin BT

Responsibility without authority is slavery.                                       ---Sijin BT

I actually was musing on the above topic and came up with the same result, only with "servitude" replacing slavery.  The opposite is also revealing: authority without responsibility is tyranny...are you prepared to vote such a person into office this November?  But when I consider the first statement, I find that it is the worst element of manipulation for someone...regardless of whether I am at work, doing some volunteering, or in other situations...to assign me a task without allowing any flexibility in executing it while often insisting in exquisite detail all of the specific things they insist on.  When I encounter this kind of micromanagement attitude, I wonder why the other party doesn't do it instead...but of course, it's all about them having dominance and control, isn't it?  Sijin BT is an Indian business trainer, focusing on sports.  That's all I know about him, but he certainly got it right with the above quote...