Sunday, May 31, 2020

Running - Weekly Log for May 24, 2020 through May 30, 2020

Last Week's Mileage Goal: 27 miles
Actual Miles Last Week: 19.5 miles
Run/Walk Miles: 0 miles
Cumulative Mileage: 538.5 miles.
This Week's Mileage Goal: 20 miles
Current Weigh-In: 199.8

My shoulder issues kept up this week, so I wasn't able to run as often as I wanted. Even so, I still got just over nineteen miles in on the road. I'm scaling back my weekly mileage goal for this week based upon my continuing shoulder issues, and I figure that I will have to scale back for a while until I get to the point where I can comfortably run further. The vicissitudes of age are forcing this change, but I am hoping I will eventually be able to outrun them.

Previous Weekly Running Log: May 17, 2020 through May 23, 2020
Subsequent Weekly Running Log: May 31, 2020 through June 6, 2020

Running     Home

Saturday, May 30, 2020

Book Blogger Hop May 29th - June 4th: Agent 355 Was the First Female Spy for the United States, and No One Knows Who She Really Was


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 social media sites do you visit? Please leave your links so we can follow.

I have a Facebook account, an almost never-used account on Instagram, and I have an account on MeWe. I think that MeWe is likely to fare as poorly as all of the other alternatives to Facebook that have popped up, and will be as defunct as Google+ in a year or two.

I used to have a Twitter account, but since the site has been coddling fascists for a while, I dropped them and have no intention of returning. I tried Mastodon for a bit, but they don't really seem to have their act together.

I really wish there was a good alternative to Facebook.

Subsequent Book Blogger Hop: xkcd 356 describes the Game of Nerd Sniping

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Monday, May 25, 2020

Musical Monday - Beat Surrender by the Jam


#1 on the Billboard Hot 100: Never.
#1 on the Cash Box Top 100: Never.
#1 on the U.K. Chart: December 4, 1982 through December 11, 1982.

This video is from an appearance by the Jam on, I believe, BBC's Top of the Pops (based in part on the presence of Tracie Young, who joined the band specifically for their Top of the Pops appearance). Even though MTV had debuted in the U.S. a little more than a year and a half prior to this song reaching the top of the U.K. charts, the "band video" format was still kind of primitive in nature, and often not a priority for bands of recording labels. As a result, in many cases, the only real video evidence remaining of some songs is from appearances like this one on one of the various "pop music" television programs. These sorts of shows don't really seem to exist any more - first MTV and VH1 and then websites like YouTube gave music artists another venues to promote their offerings and shows like the Midnight Special, Top of the Pops, Solid Gold, and so on seem to have simply withered away.

This was more or less the Jam's swan song. Beat Surrender was their last major hit, and the band announced their break up two months before this song reached the top of the U.K. charts. This Top of the Pops appearance was one of their last performances as a band. They had bridged the gap from the late 1970s to the early 1980s, and you can see the beginnings of the 1980s in their sound and style, but they didn't make it all the way through the cultural changeover from one decade to another.

Previous Musical Monday: Truly by Lionel Richie
Subsequent Musical Monday: Mickey by Toni Basil

Previous #1 on the U.K. Chart: I Don't Wanna Dance by Eddy Grant
Subsequent #1 on the U.K. Chart: Save Your Love by Renée and Renato

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

The Jam     1980s Project     Musical Monday     Home

Sunday, May 24, 2020

Running - Weekly Log for May 17, 2020 through May 23, 2020

Last Week's Mileage Goal: 20 miles
Actual Miles Last Week: 11.5 miles
Run/Walk Miles: 0 miles
Cumulative Mileage: 519 miles.
This Week's Mileage Goal: 27 miles
Current Weigh-In: 197.6

After a couple of good running weeks, this week was kind of a setback. I've been having some shoulder issues, and they flared up worse than ever this week. One might wonder why a shoulder problem kept me from running, and the only answer I can give is that it is hard to run when you've spent all night trying to find a position to sleep in that doesn't involve either shoulder resting on something. Plus, the fact that you have to use your arms as counterbalances when you are running means you use your shoulder to run a lot more than you realize until it hurts every time you do so.

In any event, I still got eleven and a half miles on the road this week, and there's not really any reason not to hope for a better week this week, especially since I seem to have gotten the shoulder issue at least partially under control. I'm going to push to the mileage goal for this week I would have pushed to had last week been as expected, and we will see how this goes. I am cautiously optimistic.

Previous Weekly Running Log: May 10, 2020 through May 16, 2020
Subsequent Weekly Running Log: May 24, 2020 through May 30, 2020

Running     Home

Saturday, May 23, 2020

Book Blogger Hop May 22nd - May 28th: The "Chronograph of 354" Is the Earliest Known Dated Codex


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: If you own an ebook, would you also purchase a print copy as well?

I don't own any e-books.


Book Blogger Hop     Home

Monday, May 18, 2020

Musical Monday - Truly by Lionel Richie


#1 on the Billboard Hot 100: November 27, 1982 through December 4, 1982.
#1 on the Cash Box Top 100: December 4, 1982 through December 11, 1982.
#1 on the U.K. Chart: Never.

Throughout the 1970s, Lionel Richie was a member of the Commodores, a band that produced both funky dance music and sugar-sweet ballads. In large part, the syrupy ballads were written by Lionel Richie, and are among the most recognizable songs the group recorded.

Tensions within the band, in part between the members who wanted to make more songs like Brick House and Lionel, who wanted to make more songs like Three Times a Lady, led to Richie leaving the group in 1982 and embarking on a solo career in which he pushed treacly ballad after treacly ballad to the top reaches of the music charts. Without Richie, the Commodores mostly faded from relevance, although they did have a brief resurgence a couple of years later.

Truly is fairly representative of Richie's solo work. It is all smoothness and sentiment, without even the mild edge of a song like Sail On. This sort of sappiness was incredibly commercially and critically successful, and over the next couple of years, Richie garnered numerous top ten hits, a couple of Grammy Awards, and an Academy Award for his music. Treacle covered in syrup sells.

Previous Musical Monday: Gloria by Laura Branigan
Subsequent Musical Monday: Beat Surrender by the Jam

Previous #1 on the Billboard Hot 100: Up Where We Belong by Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes
Subsequent #1 on the Billboard Hot 100: Mickey by Toni Basil

Previous #1 on the Cash Box Top 100: Gloria by Laura Branigan
Subsequent #1 on the Cash Box Top 100: Maneater by Hall and Oates

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

Lionel Richie     1980s Project     Musical Monday     Home

Sunday, May 17, 2020

Running - Weekly Log for May 10, 2020 through May 16, 2020

Last Week's Mileage Goal: 18 miles
Actual Miles Last Week: 18 miles
Run/Walk Miles: 0 miles
Cumulative Mileage: 507.5 miles.
This Week's Mileage Goal: 20 miles
Current Weigh-In: 198.4


Now to run the next 500 miles.

Previous Weekly Running Log: May 3, 2020 through May 9, 2020
Subsequent Weekly Running Log: May 17, 2020 through May 23, 2020

Running     Home

Saturday, May 16, 2020

Book Blogger Hop - May 15th - May 21st: The Country Code for the Republic of Ireland Is 353


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: As a book blogger yourself, what was the last book you read as a result of a fellow blogger's post?

I have to confess that I don't actually read very many other book bloggers. Between work, reading, getting material put together for the two ongoing RPG campaigns I am running, and writing material for this blog, not to mention having a two year old, I just don't have a lot of time to read other bloggers. In a weird twist of irony, I don't really like to read reviews of a book unless I have already read the book, and by then it is obviously too late to read the book based one a blogger's recommendation.

The handful of book bloggers I do regularly read don't really give me very many recommendations of new books to read, in large part because they are usually recommending books that I have already put on my reading list. In those cases, I can't really credit my reading those books to their recommendation, since I had already decided to read them. They might motivate me to push those books closer to the top of my reading list, but I can't truthfully say that I decided to read the book based upon their recommendation.


Book Blogger Hop     Home

Monday, May 11, 2020

Musical Monday - Gloria by Laura Branigan


#1 on the Billboard Hot 100: Never.
#1 on the Cash Box Top 100: The week of November 27, 1982.
#1 on the U.K. Chart: Never.

This song was a huge hit in 1982 - at the time it set a record for a song by a solo female artist. Despite the fact that it was and undeniably successful song on its own, my memory of this song is inextricably intertwined with the 1983 movie Flashdance. The song appears in a relatively short but important scene in which one of the women in the story is performing in a figure skating competition.

The central theme of Flashdance is that the various dancers and staff of the tiny club named Mawby's are all hoping for a big break to change their lives. Jeanie is a waitress at Mawby's who is training to be a figure skater. When she gets her opportunity to compete, she uses Gloria as her backing music and her routine starts well, but then she falls, and with her confidence shaken she falls again and again. She finally gives up, her dream dead. Jeanie is a casualty of the plot, used more or less to show that breaking free of the dive bar all the characters are working at is a difficult endeavor. Later, she despairs after her boyfriend leaves town to try to make it as a stand-up comedian, deciding at that point that her only option is stripping.

I don't know if my memory associating Branigan's song with this subplot from Flashdance is shared by a lot of other people. I kind of suspect that it is, because the figure skating scene sticks out as being fairly notable in the film. In any event, in my mind Gloria and Laura Branigan will always be connected to a woman failing at figure skating followed by her briefly choosing a career as a stripper.

Previous Musical Monday: I Don't Wanna Dance by Eddy Grant
Subsequent Musical Monday: Truly by Lionel Richie

Previous #1 on the Cash Box Top 100: Up Where We Belong by Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes
Subsequent #1 on the Cash Box Top 100: Truly by Lionel Richie

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

Laura Branigan     1980s Project     Musical Monday     Home

Sunday, May 10, 2020

Running - Weekly Log for May 3, 2020 through May 9, 2020

Last Week's Mileage Goal: 15 miles
Actual Miles Last Week: 15 miles
Run/Walk Miles: 0 miles
Cumulative Mileage: 489.5 miles.
This Week's Mileage Goal: 18 miles
Current Weigh-In: 196.6

Last week I set a goal of fifteen miles. I ran fifteen miles. I thought I was going to miss a day of running on Saturday, because I was feeling quite worn out and the weather was unseasonably cold, but I got out and ran anyway. As a poetic reward, Sunday has been beautiful.

Based upon my success last week, I'm going to go ahead and up my mileage goal for this week to eighteen miles, in accord with my overall plan. At this pace, I should be back to five miles a day in a month or so. I am hopeful that I will be able to get there.

Previous Weekly Running Log: April 26, 2020 through May 2, 2020
Subsequent Weekly Running Log: May 10, 2020 through May 16, 2020

Running     Home

Saturday, May 9, 2020

Book Blogger Hop May 8th - May 12th: The Battle of Crocus Field Was Probably Fought in 352 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 platform do you use for your blog?

I use Blogger. There's really no thought behind it other than that's what I found as a platform back when I started blogging and just never changed. I've considered changing a couple of times, and even have a domain that I own that I could use, but the task of moving everything over would simply be so large that I never bothered.


Book Blogger Hop     Home

Monday, May 4, 2020

Musical Monday - I Don't Wanna Dance by Eddy Grant


#1 on the Billboard Hot 100: Never.
#1 on the Cash Box Top 100: Never.
#1 on the U.K. Chart: November 13, 1982 to November 27, 1982.

Is Eddy Grant the only Guyanese international pop star? I think he may be. I certainly can't think of another. In any event, Grant was part of a mini-boom of non-Reggae based Caribbean music that took place in the early- to mid-1980s. He only had a handful of really substantial solo hits, and this was one of them. To a certain extent, it was kind of a miracle that Grant was performing at all in 1982, since he had suffered a heart attack and collapsed lung in 1971 that had sidelined him for years.

In any event, this song is basically a gentle break-up song. It may be the most matter-of-fact break up song I've ever heard, and possibly the one with the least animosity of heartache as well. Basically, the singer just isn't interested in the former object of his affections any more, but isn't going to do anything to hurt her on his way out of the door. The video kind of sends a mixed message though, and although I vaguely recall the song from way back in 1982 - when I would have been living in ZaĂ¯re - I had never seen the video until this week.

Previous Musical Monday: Up Where We Belong by Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes
Subsequent Musical Monday: Gloria by Laura Branigan

Previous #1 on the U.K. Chart: Do You Really Want to Hurt Me? by Culture Club
Subsequent #1 on the U.K. Chart: Beat Surrender by the Jam

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

Eddy Grant     1980s Project     Musical Monday     Home

Sunday, May 3, 2020

Running - Weekly Log for April 26, 2020 through May 2, 2020

Last Week's Mileage Goal: 12 miles
Actual Miles Last Week: 10 miles
Run/Walk Miles: 0 miles
Cumulative Mileage: 474.5 miles.
This Week's Mileage Goal: 15 miles
Current Weigh-In: 198.4

Getting back to where I was in February is going to be a long grind. Building up your running endurance is an extended, arduous process, that only gets more difficult every year that I get older. Losing your edge, on the other hand, happens in almost the blink of an eye. So I will slowly work my mileage up again, adding just a little bit to each day's run every week until I am back to running real distance on a regular basis. Patience is a virtue, especially in distance running.

Even though I didn't make my mileage goal this week, that was due to circumstances beyond my control - I ended up having so many meeting scheduled on Friday that I just didn't have time to go out and run. Therefore, I am still upping my mileage goal for this week as I had originally planned to do. Let's see if I make the full 15 miles on the road this week.

Previous Weekly Running Log: April 19, 2020 through April 25, 2020
Previous Weekly Running Log: May 3, 2020 through May 9, 2020

Running     Home

Saturday, May 2, 2020

Book Blogger Hop - May 1st - May 7th: Transfers Under 26 U.S.C. § 351 Are a Primary Means of Transferring Property to Businesses


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: Quote your favorite author!

Some Ursula K. Le Guin quotes:

"Love doesn't just sit there, like a stone, it has to be made, like bread; remade all the time, made new." - from The Lathe of Heaven.

"We read books to find out who we are. What other people, real or imaginary, do and think and feel – or have done and thought and felt; or might do and think and feel - is an essential guide to our understanding of what we ourselves are and may become. A person who had never listened to nor read a tale or myth or parable or story, would remain ignorant of his own emotional and spiritual heights and depths, would not know quite fully what it is to be human. For the story – from Rumpelstiltskin to War and Peace - is one of the basic tools invented by the mind of man, for the purpose of gaining understanding. There have been great societies that did not use the wheel, but there have been no societies that did not tell stories."

"To light a candle is to cast a shadow" from A Wizard of Earthsea

"You cannot buy the revolution. You cannot make the revolution. You can only be the revolution. It is in your spirit, or it is nowhere." from The Dispossessed

"To learn which questions are unanswerable, and not to answer them: this skill is most needful in times of stress and darkness." from The Left Hand of Darkness

"The only thing that makes life possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty: not knowing what comes next." from The Left Hand of Darkness

"I am living in a nightmare, from which from time to time I wake in sleep."

"The law of evolution is that the strongest survives!' 'Yes, and the strongest, in the existence of any social species, are those who are most social. In human terms, most ethical . . . There is no strength to be gained from hurting one another. Only weakness."


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