by admin

Book 38 (of 52) – Desert Star

Desert Star – Michael Connelly

A year after quitting LAPD, Detective Renée Ballard was brought back to run a revamped cold case unit.  With a rag tag bunch of civilian volunteers, Ballard reaches out former detective Harry Bosch, using a case from his past as the bait.  Focusing on the death of a councilman’s sister as a teen, they get lucky with some DNA that would have been useless at the time, finding a match to another cold case.  Working the two, they are able to uncover a suspect, one close to their vest.  Meanwhile, Bosch works his own case, tracking his suspect down to Florida.

In the fifth entry of his Renée Ballard series, Desert Star, Michael Connelly continues to team her up with his old Harry Bosch character, first introduced in 1992’s The Black Echo.  At the end of this book, Connelly seems to indicate that Bosch is on his way out, but there is another entry in the Ballard series that he appears in and another mainline Bosch book due out later this year, so who knows what the future holds.  This book was the basis for the first season of the Ballard series on Amazon Prime, which I stopped watching after two episodes once I found out and will now pick back up.

by admin

Fitbit 12 – Week 25

Another great week, pushing my 40,000-step streak to four weeks.  A long morning walk on Sunday started the week off on a high note, finishing with 7300 steps.  Monday dropped down a bit, falling just 3 steps away from 5700.  Tuesday was the low point of the week, coming in with 5000 steps.  Wednesday jumped up again, needing 36 steps to reach 6100.  A single step is all that stood between me and 6700 steps on Thursday.  A morning doctor’s appointment on Friday left me with exactly 5500 steps.  A trip to the Rate wrapped up the week on Saturday, finishing with 5900 steps.

Total steps: 42,256

Daily average: 6036.6

by admin

2026 All Star Break Pitching Leaders

Now that the All-Star Game is behind us and we await tomorrow’s start of the second half of the season, with both the White Sox and the Cubs in contention for the post-season, let’s take a look at the first half leaders on the defensive side of the ball for the 24 games I’ve attended so far this season, beginning with everyone’s favorite pitching stat:

Wins

Name Total
Edward Cabrera 2
Anthony Kay 2
Davis Martin 2
18 tied with 1

Losses

Name Total
Sean Burke 2
22 tied with 1

ERA (> 6 IP)

Name Total
Kyle Harrison 0.00
Shota Imanaga  0.00
Grant Taylor 0.00
Holby Milner 0.00
Sean Newcomb 0.00

Strikeouts

Name Total
Sean Burke 22
Continue reading →
by admin

2026 All Star Break Batting Leaders

With the All-Star Game in the books and a few days of rest before the unofficial second half kicks off, let’s take a look at the first half offensive leaders for the 24 games I’ve attended so far this season, starting with:
Home Runs

Name Total
Munetaka Murakami 5
Miguel Vargas 4
Colson Montgomery 4
Andrew Benintendi 3
Michael Conforto 3
Dansby Swanson 3
Ian Happ 3
Pete Crow-Armstrong 3
Tristan Peters 3

Hits

Name Total
Miguel Vargas 18
Chase Meidroth 15
Colson Montgomery 13
Ian Happ 13
Andrew Benintendi 13
Michael Busch 13

Runs

Name Total
Miguel Vargas 16
Ian Happ 12
Continue reading →
by admin

2026 All Star Break Standings

As we reach the metaphorical, if not quite exact, midpoint of the 2026 baseball season, the Midsummer Classic lands in Philadelphia for the fifth time in celebration of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.  If you would have told me back in April that not only would the White Sox head into the break with a winning record, but they would be tied for first place in the AL Central and that both Chicago teams are in position for a post-season appearance for the first time since 2008, I would have called you a crazy person.  Yet here we are.

As the stars of the baseball world gather at Citizens Bank Park for tonight’s showdown, it’s time to take a look at the team records for the 24 games, featuring 50% of the teams in the league, that I attended in the first half of the baseball season.

2026 Team Records

Team Name Won Loss Winning Pctg
Washington Nationals 2 0 1.000
Milwaukee Brewers 2 0 1.000
Los Angeles Dodgers 1 0 1.000
Chicago White Sox 10 6 0.625
Chicago Cubs 6 5 0.545
Seattle Mariners 1 1 0.500
Kansas City Royals 1 1 0.500
Sacramento Athletics 1 2 0.333
San Diego Padres 0 1 0.000
New York Mets 0 1 0.000
Minnesota Twins 0 1 0.000
Los Angeles Angels 0 1 0.000
Detroit Tigers 0 1 0.000
Arizona Diamondbacks 0 1 0.000
Toronto Blue Jays 0 3 0.000
by admin

iTunes Top 200 Artists: #3

Music.  It is a powerful thing that brings people together, creates memories, and evokes emotions.  It is the universal language that speaks to the soul.  It forms the soundtrack of our lives.

It has now been five years since we last counted down the Top 200 artists in my iTunes library, featuring the songs I have listened to the most since 2007.  It is time to do so again, seeing which performers still resonate and if any newer ones have joined the fray.  So, without further ado, here are my most listened to artists, based on number of plays as of January 1, 2026.

Today, we have our final entry from a comedian with the artist I first “discovered” in 1989 with his role as Rufus in Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure followed by an HBO comedy special the following year, George Carlin.

#3: George Carlin
iTunes stats: 2102 plays
Previous ranking: #3

A 22% increase for the 117 tracks from eight different albums leaves the comedy legend, who died in 2008 at the same position.  Averaging nearly 18 plays per routine, many of these tracks, mostly from 1992’s Jammin’ In New York and 2001’s Complaints and Grievances, are used as background noise as I try to fall asleep while away from home.  Like our previous comedian entries, I’ve enjoyed Carlin’s work in other mediums as well, whether it was television, movies, or the written word.  Sadly, I never got the opportunity to see him perform live.

by admin

15 Years Of Step Tracking

Fifteen years ago, I started a program through work that “encourages you to track your steps and help you to focus on your fitness in a simple and accessible way.”  They gave us a tracker, which attached to your shoe and used “an accelerometer to accurately calculate the number of steps, distance walked, calories burned and time of activity.”  I received that first tracker fifteen years ago today.  After a little more than three and a half years, the program shut down and I finished with a little more than 6.5 million steps.

That same week, I ordered my first Fitbit, looking to continue tracking my steps.  Which worked out well, at least until March of 2020 when a global pandemic caused the world to shut down for a year or so and for me to become a remote worker.

I crossed the 10 million step plateau in 2016, 15 million in 2018, 20 million in 2020, 25 million in 2023, and 30 million earlier this year.  To date, my total is 30,439,765 steps over 15 years, which averages out to a little over 2 million steps per year and 5600 steps per day.  In the early days, this was well above my goals, but I’ve been hoping for more for quite some time now.  I started looking to get 2,000,000 steps in those first few years, which I had a difficult time making.  As I moved over to the Fitbit from the Global Fit tracker, I started meeting those goals and, subsequently, increasing them each year.  These last six years have seen incredible backslides, but I’ve started to inch back upwards this year thanks to some weight loss and increased energy and stamina.

Along the way, I participated in some 5Ks, hiked up a mountain, traveled the world, and endured a global pandemic, racking up steps along the way.  Now that my world is opening back up again, here’s hoping the next 15 years are even better.

by admin

With The First Pick In The 2026 Draft

To the surprise of nearly no one, the White Sox selected UCLA shortstop Roch Cholowsky with the top overall pick of the 2026 MLB draft.  Cholowsky, the consensus preseason pick both at the draft lottery in December and the start of the college baseball season in February, had an ok, but not outstanding junior season, enabling prep shortstop Grady Emerson and Georgia Tech catcher Vahn Lackey to enter into the conversation.  Cholowsky reportedly agreed to sign under slot, which is just north of $11.3 million, which gave the team room to select Landon Thome, son of Hall of Famer Jim Thome, with the competitive balance pick they acquired yesterday from the Pirates in the Jacob Gonzalez trade.

Cholowsky becomes the third overall top pick by the White Sox, following Danny Goodwin in 1971 and Harold Baines in 1977.  Hopefully his career ends up closed to the later than the former.

by admin

What Might Have Been

When I was young, maybe 10 or so, I apparently became enamored with the UCLA Bruin cartoon mascot.  I remember having the light blue t-shirt with the gold lettering and the cartoon bear, probably the only kid in suburban Chicago with such a shirt who had no connection to the school, and had determined that this is where I was going to go for college.  What that actually meant, I’m sure I had no idea, but that was my goal.  Unfortunately, my mom made sure to extinguish those dreams pretty quickly, letting me know in no uncertain terms that it was too far away and there was no way I would be going there.

I mean, what was the harm in letting a young kid dream?  Who even knew if it would have lasted or, if it did, if I would have even gotten in?  Anyway, by the time I hit high school and it was time to start seriously thinking about where I was going to go to school, UCLA never even entered the picture.  I visited four schools, applied to three, and ended up going to the only one outside the Illinois state borders: Purdue University.

Those childhood dreams were a distant memory by the time I graduated and made my first ever trip to California in 1998.  Still, the closest I came to Los Angeles was San Diego until 2014.  I’ve made a number of return trips to LA since then and occasionally thought of maybe adding in a trip to Westwood to at least see the campus, but it never got past that point.  It didn’t seem likely that I would ever see what I had missed out on, and that was ok.

In 2022, however, things changed.  In a surprise announcement, UCLA and USC were going to be joining the Big Ten, which opened up the possibility of heading west for a football or basketball game.  While UCLA football plays at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, nearly 30 miles from campus, Pauley Pavilion was smack dab in the middle of the action.  This past January, with realistic national title contention hopes still alive, Purdue basketball made their first trip to California for conference play.  And I was joining them.

After an early afternoon tour of Dodger Stadium on a Tuesday in late January, we headed west towards the UCLA campus.  After finding an overpriced parking spot, we started walking towards the arena, which is on the campus, passing students, faculty, and buildings along the way.  We were early, so we had the opportunity to just sit and take it all in for a bit, before getting in line for the game.  Decked out in gold and black instead of blue and gold, I was finally in Westwood and 10-year-old me was thrilled!  Sadly, the Bruins outlasted the Boilermakers that night and their souvenir cup game was lacking, but I came home with a John Wooden bobblehead, a legend at both schools, and a 40-year-old itch finally scratched.

by admin

Book 37 (of 52) – Margo’s Got Money Troubles

Margo’s Got Money Troubles – Rufi Thorpe

When Margo, a young college student with no real plan for life, finds herself with child thanks to her English professor, she is unprepared for the realities of what keeping the child will mean.  After getting a small payoff from the father’s family in exchange for dropping out of school and leaving them alone, she finds that the only way for her to make ends meet is to start an OnlyFans page.  With the help of her roommate and her ex-wrestler junkie father, she starts to make things work, but a sudden custody battle and a separate CPS complaint by her estranged mother leaves her questioning her choices.

Margo’s Got Money Troubles, a 2024 Goodreads Choice nominee from Rufi Thorpe, first came to my attention earlier this year thanks to the Apple TV adaptation starring Elle Fanning.  It is an interesting tale, following the young protagonist and she struggles to find a place in the world and leaving her with a clear plan that should lead to future success.