Running - Weekly Log for February 23, 2020 through February 28, 2020

Last Week's Mileage Goal: 30 miles
Actual Miles Last Week: 15 miles
Run/Walk Miles: 0 miles
Cumulative Mileage: 400.5 miles.
This Week's Mileage Goal: 40 miles
Current Weigh-In: 198.2 pounds

I fell very short of my weekly mileage goal this past week. This was mostly due to weather and bad timing. On Wednesday I went out for a run at what turned out to be exactly the wrong time. It had been very lightly raining most of the evening - really just misting for the most part - but when I went out to run, I ended up running during the one hour that the rain came down quite heavily. Even though I was wearing my water resistant jacket, the downpour was simply too much and I ended up getting completely soaked. This wouldn't have been too bad, but the temperature dropped from a comfortable mid-40s down into the 30s at the same time. It took two days for my running shoes to dry out. It took longer for my joints to recover from being drenched and cold. I ended up missing four days worth of running this week.

I am hoping that the upcoming week is going to be better. If I can avoid running out in the rain and cold, I should be able to get a full week of running days in. Even if i can only run on day that are rainy or cold, I should be fine.

Previous Weekly Running Log: February 16, 2020 through February 22, 2020
Subsequent Weekly Running Log: February 29, 2020 through March 7, 2020

Running     Home

Book Blogger Hop Feb. 28th - March 5th: 343 Industries Is the Video Game Company That Currently Makes Halo Games

Jen at Crazy for Books restarted her weekly Book Blogger Hop to help book bloggers connect with one another, but then couldn't continue, so she handed the hosting responsibilities off to Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer. The only requirements to participate in the Hop are to write and link a post answering the weekly question and then visit other blogs that are also participating to see if you like their blog and would like to follow them.

This week Billy asks: Tomorrow is leap year. Name one book being released in 2020 that you would prefer to skip

I don't really pay much attention to authors and books that I am not interested in, but I can't really say there are any books that I am aware of that I am simply not interested in. I suppose Scrappy Pup authors such as Larry Correia or Brad Torgersen might have a book coming out this year, and I pretty much have no interest in anything any of the Pups write. I don't know if any of them actually have a book coming out this year, and I don't really care.

Previous Book Blogger Hop: I Once Dealt With a Case Involving a Sovereign Citizen and 11 U.S.C. § 342

Subsequent Book Blogger Hop: "344 Questions: The Creative Person's Do-It-Yourself Guide to Insight, Survival, and Artistic Fulfillment" Is a Book by Stefan G. Bucher

Book Blogger Hop     Home

Musical Monday - Hurt So Good by John Cougar

#1 on the Billboard Hot 100: Never.

#1 on the Cash Box Top 100: The week of July 24, 1982.

#1 on the U.K. Chart: Never.

In 1982, John Mellencamp made his first significant appearance on the music charts, hitting number one on the Cash Box chart with this song. Mellencamp is from a small town in southern Indiana, and this music video is covered in Midwestern small town-ness. Anyone who has ever spent any amount of time in one of the small towns that interrupt the sea of cornfields of southern Indiana will recognize the houses and shops that appear in the background of this video. The roads the video cast members drive their motorcycles on are actual roads in the Indiana countryside. I don't know for certain, but I wouldn't be surprised if the collection of cyclists who appear in the video were just a bunch of guys that Mellencamp met in a biker bar and invited over for a video shoot.

That said, there is an air of artificiality in this song and in this video, which is odd for an artist who later went on to build his career out of being the authentic voice of the heartland. To begin with, Mellencamp was using his stage name "Cougar", which is such a very twee name that it was never believable. The song itself feels forced and doesn't really align with most of Mellencamp's remaining oeuvre. From my perspective, Hurt So Good is a kind of strange prelude to Mellencamp's career - a career that didn't really start until Jack and Diane came out.

Previous Musical Monday: Fame by Irene Cara

Subsequent Musical Monday: Eye of the Tiger by Survivor

Previous #1 on the Cash Box Top 100: Don't You Want Me by the Human League

Subsequent #1 on the Cash Box Top 100: Eye of the Tiger by Survivor

List of #1 Singles from the Billboard Hot 100 for 1980-1989
List of #1 Singles from the Cash Box Top 100 for 1980-1989
List of #1 Singles on the U.K. Chart for 1980-1989

John Cougar     1980s Project     Musical Monday     Home

Running - Weekly Log for February 16, 2020 through February 22, 2020

Last Week's Mileage Goal: 60 miles
Actual Miles Last Week: 50 miles
Run/Walk Miles: 0 miles
Cumulative Mileage: 385.5 miles.
This Week's Mileage Goal: 30 miles
Current Weigh-In: 201.6 pounds

I didn't make my mileage goal this week, which is slightly disappointing, but really only slightly so. The mileage goal was the most ambitious goal I have set in the last year. The fifty miles I did end up running is the most mileage I have run in a week in close to three decades - I ran three runs longer than ten miles this week, and I cannot remember the last time I did that. On the other hand, I was forced to sit out two days this past week that I had not intended to - one for bad weather and one because I was sick that day. At some point in the next month or two I will probably try another sixty mile goal, and I am optimistic that I will be able to complete it.

For the upcoming week, I am going to back off the mileage for a bit. Unlike last week when I had two days off from work that I do not normally have, allowing me to do more longer runs, this week is a "normal" week in terms of my work schedule. As a result, I am only planning on running my usually weekday miles most of the days this week. To make up for the lowered mileage this week, my plan is to try to pick up the pace. I'm not quite going to do threshold training, but I'm going to push harder than have been.

Previous Weekly Running Log: February 9, 2020 through February 15, 2020
Subsequent Weekly Running Log: February 23, 2020 through February 28, 2020

Running     Home

Book Blogger Hop: February 21st - February 27th: I Once Dealt With a Case Involving a Sovereign Citizen and 11 U.S.C. § 342

Jen at Crazy for Books restarted her weekly Book Blogger Hop to help book bloggers connect with one another, but then couldn't continue, so she handed the hosting responsibilities off to Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer. The only requirements to participate in the Hop are to write and link a post answering the weekly question and then visit other blogs that are also participating to see if you like their blog and would like to follow them.

This week Billy asks: What is your go-to recommendation for someone who doesn't read often?

I usually recommend The Lathe of Heaven, by Ursula K. Le Guin. If I think the person would be more interested in a fantasy novel, I recommend A Wizard of Earthsea instead, which also happens to be by Ursula K. Le Guin.

Previous Book Blogger Hop: Epicurus Was Born in 341 B.C.

Subsequent Book Blogger Hop: 343 Industries Is the Video Game Company That Currently Makes Halo Games

Book Blogger Hop     Home

Musical Monday - Fame by Irene Cara

#1 on the Billboard Hot 100: Never.

#1 on the Cash Box Top 100: Never.

#1 on the U.K. Chart: July 17, 1982 through August 7, 1982.

Fame was the theme song for the 1980 movie Fame, and by July of 1982 it had already been available for almost two years. In 1980 the song won a Golden Globe and an Oscar for Best Original Song, and had garnered Irene Cara two Grammy nominations for Best New Female Artist and Best New Pop Artist. Although it had not reached number one on the Billboard or Cash Box charts, it had still been a big hit. In 1980, Cara seemed poised to become the big star based on the success of this song and her performance in the movie as Coco Hernandez.

Fast forward two years later and this song reaches number one on the U.K. charts. Why? Basically, television. The success of the movie Fame led to the creation of the television show Fame, and the rerelease of the song Fame. Ironically, although several members of the movie cast became regulars on the television show, Cara was not one of them. Although the television show used the song Fame as its main title, the version used for the show was not sung by Cara. To sum up: This song became a hit to promote a show the singer was not on that used a version of it that the singer did not sing.

One of the recurring themes that has run through this project is the pronounced influence that movies and television have had upon the landscape of popular music, and this song reflects that reality on two axes. First it became a hit because ti was attached to a movie, then it became a hit again because it was attached to a television show. Of course, the song never would have become a hit without being an actually pretty good song powered by Cara's powerful and almost transcendent voice.

Previous Musical Monday: Happy Talk by Captain Sensible

Subsequent Musical Monday: Hurt So Good by John Cougar

Previous #1 on the U.K. Chart: Happy Talk by Captain Sensible

Subsequent #1 on the U.K. Chart: Come On Eileen by Dexys Midnight Runners and the Emerald Express

List of #1 Singles from the Billboard Hot 100 for 1980-1989
List of #1 Singles from the Cash Box Top 100 for 1980-1989
List of #1 Singles on the U.K. Chart for 1980-1989

Irene Cara     1980s Project     Musical Monday     Home

Running - Weekly Log for February 9, 2020 through February 15, 2020

Last Week's Mileage Goal: 30 miles
Actual Miles Last Week: 31 miles
Run/Walk Miles: 0 miles
Cumulative Mileage: 335.5 miles.
This Week's Mileage Goal: 60 miles
Current Weigh-In: 199.6 pounds

I hit my mileage goal for this week - actually I exceeded it by a mile. I've been having some trouble with my feet, specifically my plantar tendons, which have been very sore due to the mileage I have been racking up. This happens every time I ramp up my mileage, so this soreness is a predictable consequence of pushing the mileage following the forced layoff that resulted from the December dog bite. I'm hoping it goes away in the next week or two, which is what has happened every previous time it has cropped up.

With President's Day giving me an extra day off work this week, I am going to set a very ambitious mileage goal - more than I have run in a week in that last three decades. I figure I can do it at this point, and I am trying to push myself as much as possible.

Previous Weekly Running Log: February 2, 2020 through February 8, 2020
Subsequent Weekly Running Log: February 16, 2020 through February 22, 2020

Running     Home

Book Blogger Hop February 14th - February 20th: Epicurus Was Born in 341 B.C.

Jen at Crazy for Books restarted her weekly Book Blogger Hop to help book bloggers connect with one another, but then couldn't continue, so she handed the hosting responsibilities off to Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer. The only requirements to participate in the Hop are to write and link a post answering the weekly question and then visit other blogs that are also participating to see if you like their blog and would like to follow them.

This week Billy asks: What genre do you like the most?

I don't think it is any secret that my favorite genre of fiction is science fiction, although fantasy is a close second. I love science fiction and fantasy, and those two genres comprise almost all of my fiction reading. One only needs to look at the list of reviews I have done for this blog to realize this. I'm not sure what else I could say in response to this question.

Previous Book Blogger Hop: The Area Code for the U.S. Virgin Islands Is 340

Subsequent Book Blogger Hop: I Once Dealt With a Case Involving a Sovereign Citizen and 11 U.S.C. § 342

Book Blogger Hop     Home

Musical Monday - Happy Talk by Captain Sensible

#1 on the Billboard Hot 100: Never.

#1 on the Cash Box Top 100: Never.

#1 on the U.K. Chart: July 3, 1982 through July 10, 1982.

Happy Talk is a song originally composed for the 1949 Broadway musical South Pacific by Rogers and Hammerstein. In the play, set during World War II, Bloody Mary uses the song to help her daughter Liat woo American Lieutenant Cable, overcoming Liat's inability to speak English and Cable's inability to speak Tonkin with the lyrics of a song about talking to each other.

With that background, this seems like an odd choice of a song to become a top hit in the U.K. in the early 1980s. After all, a song about a U.S. serviceman fighting the Japanese falling in love with a Polynesian girl who he cannot speak to or understand seems like something that wouldn't really resonate with the average person in the U.K. in 1982. I suppose it isn't that surprising that a Rogers and Hammerstein song became a pop hit - Jay and the Americans had a hit with Some Enchanted Evening in the 1960s.

Given the songs that dominated the U.K. pop charts in the early 1980s, there seems to have been some sort of weird nostalgia craze running through the culture. It would still be some time before the 1980s found their own voice. I guess it could have been stranger. You've Got to Be Carefully Taught could have been the pop hit from South Pacific that hit the top of the U.K. charts in 1982.

Previous Musical Monday: I've Never Been to Me by Charlene

Subsequent Musical Monday: Fame by Irene Cara

Previous #1 on the U.K. Chart: I've Never Been to Me by Charlene

Subsequent #1 on the U.K. Chart: Fame by Irene Cara

List of #1 Singles from the Billboard Hot 100 for 1980-1989
List of #1 Singles from the Cash Box Top 100 for 1980-1989
List of #1 Singles on the U.K. Chart for 1980-1989

Captain Sensible     1980s Project     Musical Monday     Home

Running - Weekly Log for February 2, 2020 through February 8, 2020

Last Week's Mileage Goal: 30 miles
Actual Miles Last Week: 28 miles
Run/Walk Miles: 0 miles
Cumulative Mileage: 304.5 miles.
This Week's Mileage Goal: 30 miles
Current Weigh-In: 201.1 pounds

I missed this week's mileage goal by two miles. I should have gone out and run two miles on one of my days off. Oh well, I can take consolation in the fact that I still ran 28 miles this week, and crossed the three hundred mile cumulative threshold.

I'm setting my running goal at thirty miles this week as well. If things go well this week, I'll probably up my mileage goal for the week after that.

Previous Weekly Running Log: January 26, 2020 through February 1, 2020

Running     Home

Musical Monday - I've Never Been to Me by Charlene

#1 on the Billboard Hot 100: Never.

#1 on the Cash Box Top 100: Never.

#1 on the U.K. Chart: The week of June 26, 1982.

If you think this song sounds like a soft-rock ballad from the 1970s, there is a reason for that: It is. I've Never Been to Me was originally released by Charlene in 1977, at which point it more or less flopped, barely breaking into the top 100 on the charts. The song was later rereleased in 1984, whereupon it hit number three in the U.S. and topped the charts in a couple other countries, including the U.K. This song became the first truly successful Motown single by a white female artist.

To a certain extent, this song is kind of insulting. The song posits a conversation between two women. One is a desperate wife and mother who wants to trade her life for the high-flying rock star life of the singer of the song. The singer then relates several of her life experiences and concludes that she has never been able to find self-fulfillment, concluding 'I've never been to me". The implication of the lyrics is that the housewife is somehow better off than the wealthy singer who has traveled the world and lived what can only be described as a fantasy life. This is the kind of condescending thing that rock stars sometimes do - bemoaning their difficult lives of wealth and privilege while pining for an "ordinary" life that is supposedly more fulfilling. Nothing actually keeps them from choosing the sort of "ordinary" life that they claim to yearn for, but they will still moan and whine about how good it would be if they had it.

I mean, everyone knows that their whining about wanting a "regular" life is just bullshit, but pop singers keep hypocritically trotting it out. The melody is nice though.

Previous Musical Monday: Goody Two Shoes by Adam Ant

Subsequent Musical Monday: Happy Talk by Captain Sensible

Previous #1 on the U.K. Chart: Goody Two Shoes by Adam Ant

Subsequent #1 on the U.K. Chart: Happy Talk by Captain Sensible

List of #1 Singles from the Billboard Hot 100 for 1980-1989
List of #1 Singles from the Cash Box Top 100 for 1980-1989
List of #1 Singles on the U.K. Chart for 1980-1989

Charlene     1980s Project     Musical Monday     Home

Running - Weekly Log for January 26, 2020 through February 1, 2020

Last Week's Mileage Goal: 23.5 miles
Actual Miles Last Week: 15.5 miles
Run/Walk Miles: 0 miles
Cumulative Mileage: 276.5 miles.
This Week's Mileage Goal: 30 miles
Current Weigh-In: 198.8 pounds

I didn't reach my mileage goal, but I still feel like I had a productive running week. Every run I had was fairly substantial, with three four mile runs and one three and a half mile run. I did miss two days that I had planned on running, but that was due to circumstances beyond my control. Overall, this was the first week since the dog bite back in December that I really felt like I was making progress. I also had my best weigh-in since I started tracking that - really this is the first time in several years that I have been able to write a "1" as the first digit of my weight.

Even though I did not reach my running goal last week, I am going to set a fairly ambitious goal for this week. I have some plans for the future, and a kind of self-imposed deadline for an assessment, so I need to build up my mileage to get to where I want to be. I know that is a little cryptic, but basically it means that I am going to push hard for this week and the next. If things go well, I'll be posting more on that subject after that.

Previous Weekly Running Log: January 19, 2020 through January 25, 2020
Subsequent Weekly Running Log: February 2, 2020 through February 8, 2020

Running     Home

Book Blogger Hop January 31st - February 6th: The Area Code for the U.S. Virgin Islands Is 340

Jen at Crazy for Books restarted her weekly Book Blogger Hop to help book bloggers connect with one another, but then couldn't continue, so she handed the hosting responsibilities off to Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer. The only requirements to participate in the Hop are to write and link a post answering the weekly question and then visit other blogs that are also participating to see if you like their blog and would like to follow them.

This week Billy asks: What is your opinion of bibliotherapy? Do you think this is a useful way of dealing with psychological issues? If you've used it yourself, or know someone who has, what book(s) would you recommend?

I didn't even know bibliotherapy existed until I started trying to write my response to this Book Blogger prompt, so I don't think I really had an opinion on it. That said, given the fact that behavioral science tells us that almost any form of sensory input or information can change the thinking of an individual, I suppose it could work. The only real question is whether anyone knows the effects of reading particular materials well enough to apply them in a way that is helpful for the treated individual. On that score, I will defer to people who have made it their life's work to study that issue.

Previous Book Blogger Hop: Ex Parte Virginia, 100 U.S. 339 (1879) Held That State Judges Could Not Exclude Black Citizens from Serving On Grand Juries or Petit Juries

Subsequent Book Blogger Hop: Epicurus Was Born in 341 B.C.

Book Blogger Hop     Home