Graveyard Shift

A report has just come out by an agency affiliated with the World Health Organization that links working the late-night "graveyard" shift with certain types of cancer (breast and prostate). The relationship is not certain: although there is a correlation between the graveyard shift and cancer, there may be a third, as yet undiscovered factor causing the increased likelihood of cancer that may correlate somehow with working late nights/early mornings.

When I was much younger, I felt that it would be cool to be up and about when most of the world (around me) was asleep. I'm not exactly the kind of person disposed toward being around crowds, and being awake when there were fewer people around was appealing. Plus, being off during the daytime and evening would give me a great amount of flexibility with regard to attending events without this conflicting with my work schedule. But the opportunity for me to radically change my sleeping patterns on a regular basis didn't occur until I began to work at the post office, which employs a large percentage of its enormous work force in the wee hours of the morning handling, sorting, and preparing mail for the next day's delivery. With only a gap of a little less than a year in 1995-96, I spent from late-1987 to mid-2003 working the graveyard shift as a clerk at my local post office. I noticed no serious ill effects from this tenure, but there were some disturbing effects nevertheless. For one thing, I seemed to come down with colds and sinus infections much more often. I also experienced something I call "chronic sleepiness", and this did not bode well for either my driving or my family relationships. And it was hard for me to get used to sleeping in the day, when the general noise level, along with myriad opportunities for distractions, ran rampant. As a matter of fact, I would always sleep nights whenever I had a day off, my body somehow desperately trying to reestablish its "circadian" sleep rhythms. Finally, by 2003, I was having a great amount of difficulty getting all the way through my "work day", with me starting to fade around 4 AM. So I was able to change my schedule to one where I began my shift in mid-afternoon and got off at midnight. Much, much better! Looking back on it, I am amazed at how long I was able to go on working the graveyard shift as I did. But now, whenever I occasionally am required to work overtime until 2 AM, even that little amount of "graveyard" work takes a toll on me! Hopefully, no long-term health consequences will have arisen out of the many years that I plodded through on the graveyard shift.

Honesty Vs. Self-Censorship In Writing

I remember once seeing an episode of the series Newhart where the character played by Bob Newhart had just had his newly written novel published. And lo and behold! It seemed that each of the characters in it bore uncanny resemblances to Newhart’s family and friends. The whole hilarious episode centered around various people confronting him with his portrayal of them (and their angry objections).

I just recently purchased and have begun to read a book titled The Courage to Write (How Writers Transcend Fear) by Ralph Keyes, a writing teacher who has written several books on the subject. One of the points that Keyes makes in it is that honest writers will usually, without any intention of doing so, at one time or another offend someone they know with their writing. This may or may not be an overt, obvious sort of thing, but in truth, a writer’s chief (by far) source of any information (and that includes of characters) is from his or her own memory and experiences. Keyes related several examples of authors who had to deal with angry relatives and friends who identified themselves (in their opinions, unflatteringly) in published novels and stories. But Keyes stresses that an honest writer will not let this external pressure for self-censoring limit what is a sincere expression of what he or she really feels.

I’m a little concerned that, eventually, people who know me and find out that I am writing this blog may suspect that I’m going to use it as an exposé on them in some way. In truth, I’ve been at it since early April and feel that nothing could be further from the truth. I’ve deliberately avoided tackling some very sensitive, difficult topics precisely and solely because I was concerned about the privacy and feelings of others. But since I don’t live in insulated isolation from others, my own experiences and feelings, some of which I would like to (and have a right to) write about inevitably touch upon certain people, and they will be mentioned as diplomatically and discretely as possible (or not mentioned at all). So, I am really going “above and beyond” in respecting others whom I know with this blog (unless, of course, they are public figures about whom I am writing). When I finally get down to writing fictional stories to submit for publication, though, I intend to follow Keyes’s advice and be a “courageous writer”. But as Keyes also stressed, each writer needs to come to sort of peace within himself about how to tackle this area. And, quite frankly, I don’t know exactly how my characters will reflect upon real-life people I know. But my instincts tell me that what will most likely occur is that I may take a bit from one person and mix it with traits from others (and from my own imagination) to create unique, special characters, quite unlike the comic “Newhart” scenario.

Foreign Languages on the Eights: 11/27

For the past eight weeks, I've been studying Vietnamese using Robert M. Quinn's Beginner's Vietnamese (Hippocrene Books, 1995). I have finished the first nine chapters of this thirty-lesson text. I need to pick up my pace, though. Most of the vocabulary I've encountered has been very familiar, but there are "new" words as well. Vietnamese is an analytic language, meaning that I don't have to spend time learning declensions and conjugations. Nor do I have to concern myself with word roots changing on me. Vietnamese expresses its grammatical functions through syntax, and Quinn provides plenty of syntactic practice with each lesson. My problem is that Vietnamese is a tonal language, and I'm still not too clear on how various words are pronounced according to their intonation. Also, their vowels are pronounced a little differently from English, and I need an audio model to demonstrate the differences. Also, I need to begin assembling a personal vocabulary list that references where I first learned each word. Of course, with Vietnamese, I learned many of the words in the period of 1979-1982, so I'm just going to "pretend" that I just learned them for the first time with the Quinn book.

Another facet of my foreign language study has been to listen daily to news broadcasts in my "designated" languages, either from Webcasts or from my television (with Spanish). In this area, I have been too lax. I need to set aside some more time for listening, as it does give me a good sense of how the various languages flow (not to mention training me to listening to them more quickly).

As I've mentioned elsewhere on this blog, I'm not exactly a whiz at computers, and I haven't been able to download a Vietnamese font to write it. Although Vietnamese uses a Romanized script (in spite of its many Chinese loan words), specially-modified nouns and numerous diacritics and tonal markers make it rather cumbersome to write out. And I wouldn't be doing it justice to attempt writing in it using the ordinary fonts that I employ in this blog. But it would be pretty cool, once I've downloaded a Vietnamese font and figured out the keyboard layout, to write a short composition in Vietnamese using my already-learned vocabulary. Maybe eight weeks from now...

Favorite Songs of 1996

1996 was, to me, the last truly great year for mainstream rock and roll. I could just tune my radio in to 103.7-WRUF “Rock 104” and leave it on all night long, without worrying about having to hear really atrocious music (which is, unfortunately, too often the case nowadays). Well, here’s my somewhat long list of favorites from 1996, as I lived through it:

Free As A Bird (Beatles)
Aeroplane (Red Hot Chili Peppers)
Always Be My Baby (Mariah Carey)
Bulls On Parade (Rage Against the Machine)
Flood (Jars of Clay)
Humans Being (Van Halen)
I Got Id (Pearl Jam)
Ironic (Alanis Morisette)
Macarena (Los del Rio)
Novocaine For The Soul (Eels)
Only Happy When It Rains (Garbage)
Pepper (B. Surfers)
Ready To Go (Republica)
Standing Outside A Broke Phone Booth... (Primitive Radio Gods)
Stinkfist (Tool)
Stupid Girl (Garbage)
Tahitian Moon (Porno for Pyros)
Tonight, Tonight (Smashing Pumpkins)
What I Got (Sublime)
Where It's At (Beck)
Who Will Save Your Soul (Jewel)
You Learn (Alanis Morisette)
Zero (Smashing Pumpkins)
Burden In My Hand (Soundgarden)
Boot Camp (Soundgarden)
Undertow (REM)
E-Bow The Letter (REM)
Electrolyte (REM)
How The West Was Won (& Where It Got Us) (REM)
Angels Of The Silences (Counting Crows)
Every Day Is A Winding Road (Sheryl Crow)
So Much To Say (Dave Matthews Band)
Crash Into Me (Dave Matthews Band)
Too Much (Dave Matthews Band)
Tripping Billies (Dave Matthews Band)
Machinehead (Bush)
Greedy Fly (Bush)
The Chanuka Song (Adam Sandler)
I Stick Around (Foo Fighters)
Alone And Easy Target (Foo Fighters)
Exhausted (Foo Fighters)
Grind (Alice in Chains)
Again (Alice in Chains)
Big Bang Baby (Stone Temple Pilots)

My top favorite of the year was Alice in Chains’s beautifully angry, anguished song Again. Following close on its heals was Novocaine for the Soul by the Eels. Since then, this song has climbed up to be #5 on my all-time list. Right behind Novocaine was Stupid Girl by Garbage, a now-resurgent group fronted by vocalist Shirley Manson, who really knows how to belt out a tune. Stone Temple Pilots came out with Big Bang Baby, their rousing parody of 60’s music (the video is one of the funniest I’ve ever seen). REM plunged deeply into despair with E-Bow the Letter. And the tearjerker of the year award goes to Pearl Jam for their euphemistically-titled I Got Id.

Monday Newsbreak: 11/26

--It looks as if fires have broken out again in the coastal California area around Malibu, although the damage is nowhere as widespread as it was a few weeks ago in southern California. My area in northern Florida is also prone to fires from time to time. A few months ago, fires in southern Georgia caused almost unbreathable conditions in much of northern Florida. When the wind shifted, Atlanta had some serious emergencies with some people who couldn't breathe well. So it's not just the people who build their homes out in high-fire potential areas who are affected.

--Ten-year Australian Prime Minister John Howard and his party were convincingly turned out of office and replaced with Kevin Rudd and his Labor Party. Rudd has promised to withdraw the token Australian force in Iraq. But more importantly, he said that his administration would support ratification of the Kyoto agreement , designed to reduce carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and ameliorate the global warming crisis. Meanwhile, extreme right-wing corporate hack Sean Hannity is filling up his air time claiming that global warming isn't really happening, but if it is, it's caused by increased solar activity. Anything to avoid conceding a point to Al Gore!

--Tragedy struck downtown Gainesville during the very early Sunday morning hours in the form of a senseless, random murder. A Tallahassee man who, along with his brother, had visited Gainesville for the Saturday UF-FSU football game, was leaving a downtown parking garage when he was shot to death by someone in the garage. Video cameras caught the perpetrator as he was fleeing the garage, and the victim's brother witnessed the murder. So I ask, where was the security? You mean to tell me that they don't provide security for these parking garages, with all of the money that they rake in from them? I think that I'll just take my chances parking alongside curbs.

--The Florida Gators football team ended their regular season on a successful note by handling their cross-state rivals, the Florida State Seminoles, 45-12. It's a little sad for me to see both FSU and Miami having tough seasons, but maybe this is just a dip that will be corrected in the near future. I was happy to see the Tennessee Vols hold on to beat Kentucky in multiple overtimes, 52-50, to gain a shot at LSU for the SEC title. Since the Tigers blew a chance at a national championship with their loss to Arkansas this past week, I'm just going to stick with good ol' Coach Phillip Fulmer in his quest to lead Tennessee to steal the crown from the favorites!

Personal Narratives

Do you have your own life story? I do, and I imagine that most everyone does, at least those who have grown out of childhood. It takes form in a sort of narrative that we use to filter our ongoing experiences through. If something happens to me that affirms some aspect of my personal narrative, then I just add it to the "big story". And if something happens that runs counter to my "lessons-learned", then I tend to toss it aside as irrelevant. This is, of course an essentially dishonest process that I commit against myself. But it was not how I started out.

When I was a little child, I took everything in, noticing the kinds of things that, as an adult, I take very little interest in. For example, when I used to go to the local Kwik Chek grocery store with my parents, I got to know every decoration in the store, not to mention the colors of the walls as well as many other features that would carry little functional use as an adult. As I became older, I would choose to ignore those things that didn't contribute to the increasingly confined agenda of choices that I would be making in different situations. One of the upshots of this is that I have more vivid, complete memories of places from early childhood than I do of places I frequent nowadays. Living according to a personal narrative has caused me to ignore much of the reality around me that I unconsciously regard as irrelevant.

Another aspect of living according to a personal narrative is that it makes one less receptive to others' life narratives. As an adult, I've found that the idea of "getting to know somebody" essentially entails me just sitting back and letting them pour out their life's "story" to me, with very little room for me to actively participate in a meaningful dialogue. Even if I interject a comment pertaining to my "narrator's" story, they are more likely than not to object, no doubt holding that I have no business intruding on such a sacred thing as their great, personally unique story. Personally, I also, at times, feel an urge to "spill the beans" with another about my life's experiences and philosophy. But effectively mitigating against this is the simple fact that people in general aren't really interested in hearing about my precious (to me) narrative. It's all about them, don't you know!

The truth is that, while I habitually tend to react to things based on a rather "chipped-shoulder" personal narrative, part of me wants to be fully liberated from this type of mental and emotional self-imprisonment. And to this extent, writing a blog like this is very therapeutic. For although I put a personal touch on my entries, I've tried, for the most part, to be outward-looking and positive in writing it. Sure, I have all kinds of personal issues that I could vent and rant about. But that would not be very interesting to my readers, and it would only serve to affirm habits of self-doubt and self-pity that I am determined to change.

Overtraining in Running

When I began to write this blog this past spring, I discovered that there were quite a few bloggers out there who were devoted to running and recording their experiences on their blogs. Almost all of them were competitive runners who put in rather strenuous training routines, some more than others. Their ages varied quite a bit, as well as what they wanted to ultimately get out of running. For the most part, though, I sensed a certain culture of competitiveness that pervaded the blogs. It was almost as if the blogs themselves helped them to work out even harder.

I did notice, though, that after a while, many of them came to suffer various injuries (mostly foot, ankle, leg, and knee) that effectively put them out of action for a while. During recovery, they'd often keep their blogs going (but sometimes they'd stop it) and remonstrate about had tough it was to be inactive while they recovered. Then they'd pretty much have to start all over with their training, which they'd, once again, go at with the same zeal as before.

Now I know, from personal experience, how alluring the idea of excelling in a competitive running race can be. And it can be a great incentive for training if I see, sometime in the not-to-distant future, a race that I'd like to enter and run in. But I have to draw the line somewhere and realize that running is for me and not the reverse. When I first resumed running this past spring, I overdid my training a bit and strained some ligaments in my right foot. After recuperating, I decided to take things much easier. Originally planning to run (eventually) every day, I've instead pretty much limited my workouts to two or three times per week. And yet I seem to be stronger and faster because of this! My philosophy is now to enjoy running and make it a more gradual, enduring part of my life.

Maybe I'll enter some of those running races in the future. But my emphasis will be not to overtrain for anything. Even should I decide to enter a race in the future, I'm determined to train just as I've become used to. I have much more meaningful (for myself) goals with running, and they don't necessarily translate into the "Runner's World" culture that so many others rabidly buy into. And, hopefully, by this I'll also be able to further avoid the avoidable kinds of injuries that others suffer because of their overtraining.

Otherland

One of the more overlooked science fiction series over the past few years is Tad Williams' remarkable four-volume work titled Otherland. While Williams is widely known as a fantasy writer, this work is pure science fiction. The first book in the series came out in 1996, well before The Matrix hit the big screen. I say this because there are several uncanny similarities between the two stories, although they ultimately differ vastly in terms of plot and message.

Otherland is set one hundred years in a future dominated by virtual technology. Instead of using screens, (Inter)net users simply "enter" areas that they want to explore. And in many areas, particularly in the gaming, tourist, and shopping zones, the experience closely imitates the feeling of being in a real, albeit sometimes bizarre other place. The problem, which leads to several mysteries and a Tolkienesque "quest", is that a number of children who were using the net have suddenly and inexplicably fallen into comas. When this tragedy touches upon the life of the main character, South African Renie Sulaweyo, she, along with her Bushman friend !Xabbu, embark on a harrowing journey of discovery and rescue. Along the way, other characters are introduced: a lost Englishman by the name of Paul Jonas, a precocious American boy named Orlando, and a mysterious but apparently benevolent old man called Mr. Sellars. And there are plenty of "bad guys" to go around, too.

The characters in Otherland are compelling and unforgettable. But in terms of creative imagery, I have yet to read anything that compares to the "worlds" that Williams reveals in this saga. I know just two things: making Otherland into a movie series like Lord of the Rings would probably be prohibitively expensive, just to stay true to the special effects. But I believe that this expense would be more than offset by the explosive and enduring popularity that Otherland would enjoy once people people at-large began to notice it.

Tad Williams has a very easy-to-follow writing style that doesn't interfere with the story. I've found that through this rather "plain" writing, Williams (as well as other writers like Stephen King and John Grisham) can create interesting and intricate worlds that the reader can feel emboldened and confident to enter. And once you enter Otherland, you won't long forget it!

Looking Earlier Musically During 1990-1996

Up until late 1990, I pretty much depended on what I heard off the radio to determine my favorite songs. Then, Led Zeppelin issued the first of their famous box sets. My local station 103.7-WRUF "Rock 104" played the entire box set from beginning to end. And I discovered what an incredibly versatile, creative band Led Zeppelin was! I heard tunes like Friends, Bron-Yr-Aur Stomp, and The Battle of Evermore for the first time, along with many others. Over the next couple of years, all of my top favorite songs at the time were actually old Zep tunes like Ramble On, Misty Mountain Hop, Dazed and Confused, No Quarter, and In the Evening. But my favorite of all was my long-standing all-time top favorite song When the Levee Breaks.

Having discovered the depth in quality of Led Zeppelin's works, I decided to seek out past albums from other groups I liked such as the Moody Blues, the Police, Pink Floyd, Rush, Yes, U2, the Who, and REM. From 1991-1996, I bought many albums, and songs from them dominated my free listening time.

Why am I saying this at this time? I've arrived (going backwards one year at a time) at the year 1996 with my weekly "favorite songs of the year" reviews. Except for the most exceptional "older" songs that I liked during any particular year (from old album purchases), instead I'm going to concentrate on songs that were currently popular which I heard off the radio. So, for example, I won't include, during the span from 1991-96, any of the myriad wonderful Moody Blues songs that I became enamored with (but I may sometime in the future write about this great band).

Next week resumes my weekly review of my favorite songs from the past, going back one year at a time (picking back up at 1996).

P.S. HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Piano On the Eights: 11/21

For the past eight weeks, I've continued to plod along with my piano lessons. I get the feeling that I don't practice as much as I should, but I am making progress nonetheless. My main difficulty at this point seems to be adjusting to shifts in fingering in some pieces, sometimes from measure to measure. When this occurs, I often find myself slowing my playing down way too much. But my teacher continues to give me progressively more challenging pieces to practice playing. My special personal project is going to be learning how to play some Christmas songs for my family at home during the holiday season. I'm still looking for that "quantum breakthrough" with my piano playing skills, but it won't come anytime soon unless I put in the time and effort to make it happen!

Here are the pieces that I've been working on from my songbooks. You'll probably recognize some of the titles, while a few of them are pretty generic in nature:

Sunflower Boogie, Chinese Water Lilies, Rain Dance, Little Gray Owl, Little Rock, Careless Love, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, Goin' Home, G Major Scale Etude, It Came Upon a Midnight Clear, Minuet and Trio, Limerick Tune, Anyone for Tic-Tac-Toe?, Camptown Races, For He's a Jolly Good Fellow!, The Gift to Be Simple, Roller Coaster Rhythm, Famous People, Deck the Halls, Climb Ev'ry Mountain, Edelweiss.

Star-Gazing Season Arrives

To me, the most interesting and enjoyable time of the year for star-gazing is arriving. Late fall to early spring is a great time for sitting outside in the evening, as far or shielded as possible from streetlights, and refamiliarizing myself with the spectacular patterns of the winter evening sky. The air where I live in Florida is usually dryer this time of the year, and this makes the stars much more brighter and beautiful than during the more humid mid-spring to early-fall period. Also, by this time, I don't have to contend with annoying mosquitoes sucking me dry of blood if I'm outside for more than a few minutes at a time. But most of all, this time of year brings out my favorite constellations (and old memories, going back to childhood, of staying up to see them).

More than anything, it's the night sky itself that draws me to it. The Pleiades, a.k.a. "the smudge", is the introduction to this great section of the sky as it rises due east in the early evening. In the northeast, I can see Capella, one of the brightest stars in the sky, while the Zodiac constellations of Taurus (with the first-magnitude star Aldebaran) and Gemini (with the stars Castor and Pollux) flank on each side the showcase constellation of the season: Orion. Orion is distinguished by the three bright second-magnitude stars in a close line lying within its center: the Belt. The northeast corner of Orion contains the famous star Betelgeuse, while the southwest corner contains the star Rigel (referred to in one of the old Star Trek episodes). If I point the Belt toward the northwest, the line I draw comes close to Aldebaran. If I go in the opposite direction, I end up near the brightest star (by far) in the night sky: Sirius, in the constellation Canis Major. Going north from Sirius leads me to Procyon, the brightest star in Canis Minor. At just about the time that Orion lies on the meridian, if I don't have anything blocking my view, I can look just above the southern horizon and see Canopus, the brightest (and northernmost) star in the constellation Carina. It is also right behind Sirius in being the second brightest star in the night sky. Canopus has been my "favorite" star for many years because seeing it during the evening hours usually means that the air is pleasantly cold and dry (so why do I live in Florida, I ask myself). Aside from the stars, there are usually a couple of planets hanging around to view (Mars is currently visible in Gemini). And although the moon's brilliance (when it is out) diminishes the view of the stars, its presence always provokes my imagination.

There's nothing quite like going out on a cold, still, winter night with the stars putting on their show and a cup of hot chocolate in my hand. To me, it's a rite of the passage of seasons, and I get a feeling of nostalgia reminiscent of some of Ray Bradbury's writings (especially his Dandelion Wine). You don't have to be a whiz in astronomy to pick up a cheap star-gazing guide, find the brightest stars, and enjoy this fun leisure activity as I do!

Monday Newsbreak: 11/19

--All-time home run record-setter Barry Bonds was finally indicted on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice in connection with allegations that he took illegal performance-enhancing drugs during his baseball career. Since steroid use had been going on long before Bonds allegedly began using them himself, why didn't Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig go after alleged steroid abusers like Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa during their big home run seasons in 1998-1999? Although Selig obviously had heard talk that they had been taking steroids, he instead used the home run chase after Roger Maris's 1961 season record as a promotional gimmick to excite interest in Major League Baseball, elevating McGwire and Sosa to the status of heroes. Up until this time, Bonds had been having one great season after another. After seeing how McGwire and Sosa were lifted up by Selig and the press to a higher lever, he decided to do whatever it took to achieve their greatness. Some believe that involved taking steroids. Maybe he did, maybe he didn't. But I don't like (as I've written before on an earlier entry) the perjury charge, which I see as a cheap "cop-out" way to prosecute people when there isn't enough evidence to pursue a legitimate charge more directly related to alleged criminal activity.

--The United Nations delivered a report gravely warning of the devastating consequences of global warming. The current effects go well beyond any that cyclic fluctuations could account for. With just a slight further raise in the average worldwide temperature (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit), as many as thirty per cent of all plant and animal species on Earth face possible extinction, according to the report. The question that serious scientists are now asking is not whether global warming is real: it is whether or not the effects of global warming are reversible, and even whether the warming itself can be slowed and stopped to any appreciable degree.

--Cyclone Sidr on Saturday struck the impoverished nation of Bangladesh, causing (at latest count) 2,300 deaths there. The number is expected to go much higher, but it would have been much worse had the government not forced more than a million people living on the coast to evacuate to state-run storm shelters. Otherwise, we may have seen a repeat of the 1970 calamity, when a cyclone striking the same general area caused around 100,000 deaths.

--The University of Florida basketball season has begun, with them winning their first four games so far. Coach Billy Donovan seems to have put a very good, unselfish team together after the starters from last year's National Champion squad graduated or joined the NBA early. Still, it won't be until they hit the tough Southeastern Conference league schedule in January that we'll find out for sure how good this year's edition of Gator men's hoops is.

Weight Loss & Maintenance On the Eights: 11/18

This past eight weeks of personal weight management has seen a bit of stagnation, largely caused by not monitoring my eating enough and consuming too many sweets. However, I did not gain any significant weight, which is something. Nevertheless, I need to get my weight down to a level that I feel more comfortable running with. And that involves me losing 10-15 more pounds. Cutting back on the empty carbs (sweets), sticking to single portions during meals, and curtailing incessant snacking are the ways for me to achieve this. I am also what you might call a "stressed eater": I tend to eat a lot more during periods of anxiety and exhaustion. Cutting back on the levels of unnecessary stress (some stress is important to have) and closing my eyes when tired (instead of opening my mouth and putting food into it) will also help. Here are my weekly weighings:

DATE LBS.
9/29 177.0
10/6 178.2
10/13 (missed)
10/20 179.6
10/27 179.4
11/03 179.6
11/10 176.2
11/17 178.8

Using Examples From Shows

As I have already mentioned in a far earlier entry, I tend to think in analogies. When considering a certain situation that I am confronted with, my mind seems to naturally go back through all of the TV shows and movies I've seen (as well as stories I've read) to come up with scenarios mirroring, in some significant way, my current experience. And some of these sources are generally well-known enough to the point that I can confidently use them as examples when I am either discussing things with others or writing about them on this blog. Of course, in conversation, I can ask whether the other person has seen the episode or movie (or read the story) that I am using as an analogy. If he or she says no, then there's no point in me going any further on with it. But with this blog, I'm just going to have to presume that my reading "audience" knows about the shows I'm referring to. To increase that probability, I try to use more popular examples such as blockbuster movies (like Matrix, Godfather, A Beautiful Mind, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, etc.) or episodes from popular TV series (like All in the Family, Mary Tyler Moore, SpongeBob SquarePants, Star Trek, etc.) Every now and then, though, I'll use an example from a show that I don't believe many have seen (I used an episode from the 1960s Prisoner series a few days ago). When that happens, I try to give a little more background information about the show.

They say "Art imitates life", or is it the other way around? But using analogies, although they are usually flawed to some degree, can help listeners and readers to more fully understand the point that I'm trying to make. Or to at least get a hint as to what I'm talking about!

One danger in using examples from shows as illustrations is in possibly giving away a show's outcome to those who haven't yet seen it (and might want to). So, with this in mind, if my example seems to "give away" something in that show, then I'll preface my blog with a "plot spoiler" warning.

Social Groups Vs. Solitude

It is a pervasively held belief in our society that it is not good for people to be alone. It seems that, whenever someone commits a terrible crime anywhere, the press goes to great pains to emphasize that the culprit was a loner: being a solitary, reclusive person hence is associated with being a potential menace to society. After all, why would any sane person prefer being alone to being surrounded by people?

I will admit up front that I have a reclusive nature and generally do not enjoy the company of others (close family members excepted). There are different reasons for this, but I will examine one for this article. And that is this: regardless how big the group is or to what purpose it is meant to serve, once a group of people form with a specific identity and authority structure, its members are always never quite “good enough” for that group. They then are manipulated by those aggressive people who seek and obtain leadership positions not only into giving, both in terms of material possessions and time, to the group’s aims, but also come to bear a psychological debt to the group. This leads to a situation whereby they cannot dare to honestly and assertively express their own independently arrived at thoughts within the group without fear of rejection or being ostracized.

If people want to associate with me, let them do so of their own free will and not because we’re both members of the same “group”. I feel a very strong aversion to loud and aggressive people, many of whom I believe are cowards who hide under the cover of a group’s label in order to lord themselves over the “sheep” within that organization. Many people, out of the compulsion to conform and not “rock the boat”, will put up with an incredible amount of manipulation and abuse in a group setting that they would never have done as individuals.

Although I admit that I prefer solitude to social mingling, I have nothing at all against another individual sitting with me and discussing our thoughts on different topics in a friendly and mutually-respectful manner. I believe that this is the conduit to true friendships, not joining up with a group in which most everyone is hiding their true feelings from each other (much as poker players shield their hands from each other’s eyes). No, although I still allow myself to occasionally get sucked into being in some groups, I’d much rather just sit down with my personal projects, or maybe just read a good book! And if anyone around wants to talk with me as a true friend, then that’s A-O-K with me, too!

Favorite Songs of 1997

For most of my favorites from 1997, I listened to an alternative rock station, 97.7-WRRX “97X” and a mainstream rock station, 103.7-WRUF “Rock 104”. I was also, at this time, heavily into listening to the first four studio albums by The Who, recorded from 1966-1968. My favorite album was their third, The Who Sell Out, with the best tracks being I Can’t Reach You, Relax, Sunrise, and Rael. Also, The Good’s Gone, from their first album The Who Sing My Generation, is my all-time #20 favorite song. I also bought Collective Soul’s album Disciplined Breakdown, and regard it as their best work. Here’s my list for 1997:

Precious Declaration (Collective Soul)
Maybe (Collective Soul)
Giving (Collective Soul)
Naked Eye (Luscious Jackson)
Casual Affair (Tonic)
Criminal (Fiona Apple)
Deadweight (Beck)
Everything To Everyone (Everclear)
Fly (Sugar Ray)
Four-Leaf Clover (Alba Moore)
The Girl I Love (Led Zeppelin)
How Bizarre (OMC)
Lakini’s Juice (Live)
The Big Time (Neil Young)
Lovefool (Cardigans)
The New Pollution (Beck)
Push (Matchbox 20)
A Change Would Do You Good (Sheryl Crow)
Semi-Charmed Life (Third Eye Blind)
The World Tonight (Paul McCartney)
Sunny Came Home (Shawn Colvin)
Everlong (Foo Fighters)
Sweet Surrender (Sarah McLachlan)
Taste Of India (Aerosmith)
Tubthumping (Chumbawamba)
Volcano Girls (Veruca Salt)
Where Have All The Cowboys Gone (Paula Cole)
You Were Meant For Me (Jewel)
Your Woman (White Town)
Bittersweet Symphony (Verve)
Brick (Ben Folds 5)
The Good’s Gone (The Who) [from 1966]
I Can’t Reach You (The Who) [from 1967]
Relax (The Who) [from 1967]
Sunrise (The Who) [from 1967]
Rael (The Who) [from 1967]

Precious Declaration, at the beginning of 1997, was my favorite. But as the year wore on, I became captivated by Luscious Jackson’s beautiful harmonizing in their catchy tune Naked Eye (which was my top favorite for 1997). The Foo Fighters put out an emotionally gut-wrenching tune in Everlong. Paul McCartney came out with his best tune in decades (and possibly ever as a solo artist) in The World Tonight. Sheryl Crow’s A Change Would Do You Good was a relentless, funny song containing some great lines. Sunny Came Home was a beautifully sung tune by Shawn Colvin (why haven’t I heard anything else by her?). My all-time favorite Beck song came out this year in Deadweight. And the tearjerker of the year award goes to old-time rocker Neil Young with his slow, sweet, and long ballad The Big Time.

Bible Observations: Genesis 6-8

These chapters concern the story of Noah and the Flood. There are so many questions I have with these passages that I wonder how anyone could reasonably read and believe their literal veracity, word-for-word. Here they are:

--Genesis 6:1-3 talks about the sons of God marrying the daughters of man. To this (mysterious in its own right) passage, God responds by limiting the life span of people to 120 years max! So, what did I miss here?

--Right after that, in Genesis 6:4, the Nephilim (whoever they were) were presented and described as being “the heroes of old, men of renown”. But what puzzles me is that the passage says that they “were on the earth in those days—and also afterward”. Reading ahead that a flood is on the verge of wiping out all of humankind (except for Noah and his immediate family), how then could the Nephilim be around afterward?

--When God gave Noah instructions on how many animals to take into the ark (Genesis 6:19-7:3), He first told him to take in two of every animal, and then later told him to take in seven of each type of clean animal and seven of each type of bird.

--Given the enormous number of species of birds, mammals, and reptiles (putting aside arguments for arthropods, amphibians, and other groups) and how utterly impossible it would have been to bring them out of their specialized habitats across the planet and then cram them into the ark while sustaining them for 150 days, how can anyone in his or her good mind, with a straight face, wave this book around in the air and claim that all of it is literal truth?

--In Genesis 7:11, it was revealed that God accomplished His feat of thoroughly flooding out the Earth by opening the “floodgates” of heaven and bursting open the springs of Earth. Doesn’t this imply that the writer of this passage believed that the Earth’s interior was chiefly water and that precipitation came from heaven after “gates” were open to let it through? And if this is only figurative language, then how can a reader reasonably pick and choose what seems appropriate for literal or figurative interpretation? And wouldn’t that contradict fundamentalist literalism?

--At the end of Genesis 8, God reveals that He will never again “curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood.” And yet elsewhere in the Bible, drought and famine is revealed as a judgment against people who have strayed out of God’s favor.

The Flood, taken as a story of faith and morality instead of literal truth, brings out some important points for me. For one, being humble and reverent in one’s relationship with God will help to endure and survive through the various storms and calamities that inevitably befall everyone throughout their lives. God is not only concerned with the prospering of humans, but also reveres the survival of every species of animal. So, it’s important that we conserve our environment and protect endangered species. The importance of being in a family that sticks together through trials is also revealed here. And, of course, one that has stuck with me since I first heard this story is that sometimes doing the “right thing” can be a very lonely exercise, often leading to isolation, ridicule, and even becoming ostracized within one’s society.

Next: Genesis 9-11

Stalin and Bukharin

During the early years of the Soviet Union, the supreme leader was Vladimir Lenin. Surrounding him were others, the most notable being Leon Trotsky, Nikolai Bukharin, and Josef Stalin. After Lenin suffered a debilitating stroke and subsequently died, a power struggle ensued for control of the Communist Party and of the country as a whole. Stalin, by dint of his position as General Secretary, was able to recruit many new faces to the Party, with loyalty to him being a qualifying factor for acceptance. Also, he had bugs planted throughout the Kremlin in order to keep up with the actions of his rivals. The main conflict during this period was between Stalin, then allied with Bukharin, and Trotsky. Trotsky was pushed out of his position and ultimately exiled (to be assassinated in Mexico in 1940). During this period, the Stalin-Bukharin alliance emphasized slow, steady growth and a liberalization of economic policy which allowed for land ownership and market forces. Once Trotsky was defeated and out of the country, Stalin made a leftward turn, claiming that farmers were withholding their grain in order to enjoy higher prices. He began a brutal austerity program whereby raids on farms, in search of hidden grain hordes, were combined with the push for collectivization and forced grain requisitioning through severe quotas. The culminating effect of these actions was a period of mass famine, particularly in Ukraine. Bukharin, who had maintained a personal friendship with Stalin into 1928, was horrified at his colleague's shift. There ensued, within the Party at the highest levels, a political struggle between supporters of Bukharin and those of Stalin. At first, it appeared that Bukharin had a slightly upper hand in the contest. Then, at a crucial Party meeting in the summer of 1928, Stalin reportedly took Bukharin aside and told him, “You and I are the Himalayas. The rest are nobodies. Let’s come to an understanding.” Bukharin reacted to this gesture, not by embracing it and trying to reach an understanding, but rather by angrily storming back to his other colleagues and telling them what Stalin had said. From then on, the friendship that had existed between the two men went cold, and Stalin went all out and successfully outmaneuvered Bukharin, forcing him out of power. Later, in 1938, Bukharin would be one of the victims of Stalin’s Party purges of 1936-38 and was executed on a trumped-up charge.

When Stalin made his proposition to his old friend, Bukharin could have gone with it and stayed on in a more supportive role. He could have been on the inside when the tough actions were carried out in the ensuing months and years. And he could have carefully ameliorated the devastating effects as an insider, while as an outsider he could only shake his head in dismay. I wonder how the world would have turned out had he kept his cool with Stalin and worked out a deal. It’s a fact that Stalin, following the power struggle against Bukharin, became increasingly paranoid and suspected and imprisoned (if they were lucky, for many were shot) anyone he remotely suspected of disloyalty in his vast Gulag network of prisons. It was one of those moments when one has to ask, what if……

Monday Newsbreak: 11/12

--This past weekend was Veteran's Day Weekend. Those brave, honorable people who have given their time, and sometimes, their lives to serve this country in its defense deserve the gratitude and admiration of all of us.

--Pakistani President General Musharraf seems to be making radical decisions concerning his country's future, alternating suppressing demonstrations and putting his chief political opponent under house arrest with making public proclamations about holding parliamentary elections in the near future. The problem is that he claims to be reelected as Paksistan's president, although that recent election was boycotted by his main rival, Benazir Bhutto. President Bush rather flippantly threw out a comment the other day that Musharraf needed to take off his (general's) uniform if he was going to serve as the country's president. To me, all that does is confirm to the regime's more militant opponents their accusations that Musharraf is truly a puppet of the U.S., his recent actions to the contrary notwithstanding.

--Apparently, Hilliary Clinton's campaign has been guilty of planting her own people in the audience for question-and-answer sessions that the candidate attends. To which I say, of course they should stop it. But with this campaign being so ridiculously long, what's the point of all the other stuff (including those TV debates) as well? Let the voting commence and stop fiddling around. And while they're at it, they just might consider ending this unfair propping up of the states of Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina in terms of their relative importance in the nominating process. And they're not even going to count my own vote for delegate selection in Florida when our primary takes place? What a sham of democracy!

--The furor over Turkey's objection to the U.S. House of Representative's resolution on the 1915 Armenian Holocaust has abated, with normally pro-human rights/pro-Christian conservatives viciously criticizing Speaker Nancy Pelosi for pushing the resolution. The Armenians were a predominantly Christian nationality peacefully coexisting for centuries within the officially Muslim Ottoman Empire. When World War I broke out in 1914, the Ottoman leaders feared that they would soon be forced to fight Russia for control of the valuable Bosporus passage from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean that Russia so desperately wanted to acquire. The Eastern Orthodox capital of Constantinople (now Istanbul) was also threatened at this time. There were Armenian groups in sympathy, if not outright alliance with the Russians. The Ottomans, besides taking the side of its longtime friend and benefactor Germany, sought to eliminate the presence of the Armenians within its borders by a mass forced exile march. That there was a holocaust cannot be reasonably denied. At the close of World War II, the Ottoman Empire disintegrated and was replaced by a new, secular Turkish state interested in joining the Western nations. Ironically, it is now the Kurds, many of whom were involved in the atrocities committed in 1915, who are now a threat to Turkey. As far as the House resolution is concerned, I have two opposing views: on the one hand, it's not for other countries to dictate what OUR OWN representatives can pass or not. On the other hand, I have to ask myself what the whole point and timing rationale was behind this resolution. Yes, what happened to the Armenians in 1915 was horrendous. But, with Turkey itself trying to withstand Islamic fundamentalist pressure within its own borders and America being dependent on its Turkish ally for its cooperation in our Middle East struggles, what was Nancy Pelosi thinking?

--It looks as if the University of Florida Gators football team is back on a winning track, handily winning their last two games over Vanderbilt and South Carolina. But in order for them to be able to play for the Southeastern Conference championship, Georgia must lose to Kentucky and Tennessee must lose either to Kentucky or Vanderbilt. That's improbable, but not outside the realm of possibility. And it makes me a de-facto Kentucky Wildcats fan for the next couple of weeks. Go, André Woodson, go!

Distracted Driving

One time, many, many years ago, I was working at a job and was about to get off from work. One of my co-workers was a young lady who had recently come to the U.S. and was very proud of having just purchased a car. She offered to give me, along with two other co-workers, rides home at the end of the day, doubtless to proudly show off to us her car. The problem was that, once we were on the road, we found out that she had an altogether different conception of the act of driving than the rest of us! Not only did she repeatedly and recklessly switch lanes, but she actually once went into the opposing lane to pass cars that were backed up in her own. I kept waiting for the big crash that (very) fortunately never came. This was my first true thrill ride experience. Another thing that this well-meaning driver did was endlessly fiddle around with the radio, completely taking her attention off the road to do so.

Back then (in 1980), this would have been called "reckless driving", but within the past few years, I've noticed that people seem to be driving around more and more like this. Not only do drivers manifest their immense impatience on the road with constant lane-switching, but they, taken as a whole, seem to be much more distracted with things besides actually looking where they're going. Cell phones, CDs, MP3s, radio, food, drink, passengers, even DVDs and reading are becoming increasingly pervasive distractions to driving. While driving, I'm continuously running across situations where I know that, if I had not been fully concentrating on where I was going, then I would have had an accident. Driving distracted presumes that others will behave appropriately. But if a pedestrian or bicyclist suddenly enters the field of traffic in front or you, then you'd better see it instantly and react instinctively. Personally, seeing how bad things have gotten, I'm not all that enthusiastic about resuming my old bicycling hobby. I've seen too many distracted drivers in front of me weaving off and on the road. To them, the bike path running parallel to the street is just some extra space for them to be able to drive through so that they can pay more attention to their "toys".