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Once Upon A Time There Was A 10,000 Step Club

My world was very different three years ago, as I was finishing up my fifth year using a Fitbit.  I had just added 45 new 10,000 step days, my third best year to date, and, with upcoming trips to Boston and California already on the docket, things were looking good to add a good number more and add some new tales to this list of my Top 25 step days.  Then, the corona virus happened, the world basically shut down for the next year or so, and I stopped needing to leave the house.  I’ve worked from home since March of 2020, which theoretically gives me plenty of free time to go out for walks, but, in practice, leaves me homebound more often than not.  All told, I managed only thirteen 10,000 step days for the just completed eighth year of Fitbit usage, which, granted, is better than the prior two years combined, and gives me a total of 283 since I started keeping track back in 2011.  With that in mind, here’s the list of my Top 25 step days, which has now stayed static for three years.

1: 4/14/2018 – 27,470 steps

My best single day total is from my April 2017 trip to New York to see Angelina.  The day’s excursions included trips to the 9/11 Memorial & Museum, the Museum of the City of New York, Central Park, the Guggenheim Museum, and the Empire State Building.

2: 7/21/2018 – 27,278 steps

My July 2017 trip to Virginia, to hike up Catawba Mountain to McAfee Knob with Jeff and Val, fell just short of the top spot.

3: 6/6/2013 – 24,988 steps

2013’s trip to Disney World, which spent 5 years as my single day best, included excursions to both Epcot Center and the Magic Kingdom, and yes, falling 12 steps short of 25,000 still irks me.

4: 6/3/2019 – 24,665 steps

The first full day of 2019’s summer trip to Washington DC spent most of the day at the Smithsonian Zoo.

5: 8/8/2019 – 23,866 steps

Late in the summer of 2019, I spent two weeks in San Francisco for a work trip.   On my last full day, I went out after work, walking to Pier 39 and then back the other direction to Oracle Park to see the Giants take on the Phillies.  My totals would have been even higher, but I was dead tired and took an Uber back to the hotel after the game.

6: 3/18/2018 – 23,780 steps

My first day in Las Vegas for the 2017 IBM Think conference, the day’s totals include gallivanting around town, including a late night trip up to Caesar’s Palace from the MGM Grand to see Absinthe.

7: 10/24/2018 – 23,362 steps

My October 2018 trip to Boston to see Angelina for our birthday gives us our next entry.  While she was in class, I took tours of Fenway Park and Harvard, before meeting up with her for a late lunch and then heading to the airport for the trip home.

8: 3/22/2016 – 22,493 steps

My one-time second highest day took place during the ill-fated trip to Disney World in March of 2016.  The day’s excursion started at Hollywood Studios before heading over to Epcot Center with Jeff and Val.

9: 7/27/2013 – 20,592 steps

Still my highest total at home in the state of Illinois, the next entry comes thanks to the 2013 BTN 5K and a, for lack of a better word, misunderstanding about where I should be picked up after the race.

10: 12/29/2018 – 20,374 steps

We wrap up the top 10 with 2018’s trip to California and the trip to Disneyland to see Danny perform with the Lincoln-Way Marching Band.

11: 8/5/2017 – 20,218 steps

The next entry came in August of 2017 on the first day of my trip to Boston with Danny and Michael.  After landing in town, we traipsed to the Science Museum, a breakfast joint, our hotel, and, finally, Fenway Park.

12: 7/14/2017 – 20,208 steps

Down to #12 is my 2017 trip to Disney World, a one day journey with Angelina to celebrate her high school graduation. Continue reading →

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All Time Pitching Leaders – Through 2022

White Sox pitchers and catchers are scheduled to arrive in camp today, so that means it is time for our annual look at the pitching leaders in the now 1,040 games I’ve attended, and identified, between 1984 and 2022.  Not a whole lot of difference from last year, but a few categories have seen new faces join the leader board.  So, without further ado, let’s get things started with our first category, the always popular:

Wins

Name Total
Mark Buehrle 31
Gavin Floyd 24
Carlos Zambrano 21
Chris Sale 21
John Danks 19

Losses

Name Total
Mark Buehrle 17
Jose Quintana 17
John Danks 16
Carlos Zambrano 15
Gavin Floyd 15

ERA (>= 35 IP)

Name Total
David Robertson 2.13
DJ Carrasco 2.20
Nate Jones Continue reading →
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Book 7 (of 52) – The Bullet That Missed

Richard Osman – The Bullet That Missed

In the latest installment of the Thursday Murder Club series, that gang starts investigating the ten-year old murder of a television presenter.  At the same time, a money-laundering Swede tries to use Elizabeth to take out a competitor, but instead draws them both into the club.  As the investigation proceeds, bodies start piling up and the gang tries to figure out who’s responsible.

Richard Osman returns with The Bullet That Missed, the third entry in his Thursday Murder Club series.  I am not all caught up, so after three books in less than five months, we won’t be seeing his name for quite a while.  But, when that fourth book does ger released, I’ll be in line at the web-based library waiting for my turn.

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Yet Another Mix Tape Monday – Volume 5

33 years ago, during my sophomore year of high school, I put together the first of what would eventually become a nearly 20 volume collection of mix tapes, containing my favorite songs that I had gathered either from the radio, a cassette tape, or (eventually) CD. Today, we revisit those mix tapes for the fourth time and see how, or if, the soundtrack of my youth still resonates in today’s digital world and how much has changed over the past four years.

I got my first CD player, and my first CD, for Christmas in 1991.  My sister and I were going to Florida to celebrate Christmas with the grandparents, so we celebrated at home early.  In order to enjoy my new gift while I was gone, I added two songs from that CD, Poison’s Swallow This Live, to this collection.

My CD collection grew slowly, being a poor high school student.  When I left for college that next August, I had added five CDs to the collection: Def Leppard’s Adrenalize, the so-called Black Album from Metallica, Use Your Illusion II by Guns N’ Roses, Boyz II Men’s Motownphilly, and C.M.B. from Color Me Badd.  In college, things started to grow more quickly and, once I got out of college and had some real disposable income, things went a little crazy.  I have CDs where not only is there not a song on there that I like, but there isn’t even a song that I know.

That slowed down a bit as technology advanced, replacing physical media with digital downloads and, eventually, streaming.  I can count on one hand the number of CDs I’ve bought in the last eight years.  The question now is what do I do with 30+ years’ worth of CDs that are never used?  Everything is ripped to my computer and the only CD player I have now is that computer.  Plus, I could use the space that a cabinet full of untouched CDs is taking up in the office.  Something to consider as I remake my workspace now that I am a full-time remote worker.

Volume 5 takes us from the end of my junior year of high school, through the summer, and all the way to spring of my senior year, from mid 1991 through early 1992, and once again features a healthy dose of hair metal and pop.

Side A

Firehouse – Don’t Treat Me Bad
iTunes stats: 21 plays, most recently on 11/12/2021

Peaking at #19 on the Billboard charts, the first hit from Firehouse picked up nine new listens over the past four years.

Color Me Badd – I Wanna Sex You Up
iTunes stats: 19 plays, most recently on 12/12/2021

Featured on the soundtrack for New Jack City, the first single from the R&B boy band, which I had on cassingle, added five new spins since 2019.

Boyz II Men – Motownphilly
iTunes stats: 26 plays, most recently on 8/20/2021

The debut release from the Philadelphia crooners, which hit #3 on the Billboard charts, had a healthy seven play increase since last we checked.

Mötley Crüe – Don’t Go Away Mad (Just Go Away)
iTunes stats: 43 plays, most recently on 9/27/2022

The fourth single off of Dr. Feelgood, originally recorded off 103.5 The Blaze, gets a nice thirteen listen increase thanks to its use at Guaranteed Rate Field after strikeouts from White Sox pitchers.

Slaughter – Fly To The Angels
iTunes stats: 19 plays, most recently on 11/4/2021

Six new plays for the second single from the band’s debut album, which peaked at #19 on the Billboard charts.

Boyz II Men – It’s So Hard To Say Goodbye
iTunes stats: 62 plays, most recently on 12/31/2021

Originally written for the 70s film Cooley High, the cover, originally recorded off the radio from Hot 94.7, saw a fourteen-spin increase over the past four years when you count both the radio and album versions.

Salt-N-Pepa – Let’s Talk About Sex
iTunes stats: 25 plays, most recently on 7/22/2022

The tune, nominated for the 1992 Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group Grammy, increased its play total by eight since 2019.

Side B

Continue reading →

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Travelling The 50 States – North Carolina

Over my 48 years, I’ve done my fair share of travelling across these United States.  I thought it would be an interesting experiment go look back at those trips to each of the 31 states I have visited (62% isn’t bad, is it?) and see if, and when, I may be returning.  Working in alphabetical order, we continue today with the 12th state to be added to the Union: North Carolina.

State: North Carolina
Joined the Union: 1789
Visits: 1

My one visit to the Tarheel state came in 2016, as part of my roundabout road trip from Chicago to Disney World by way of Roanoke, Virginia.  Nothing specific about North Carolina sticks out, but considering we made only 300 miles of progress that day, we must have stopped once or twice.

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2023 Tickets – Southside Edition

This was a much more exciting day back when the White Sox delivered physical tickets for non-premium season ticket holders, but season tickets have been uploaded to the MLB Ballpark app.  While this does make the actual game day use of the tickets more convenient, I can’t help but miss the old days of paper tickets and getting a big, fancy box filled with tickets in the mail.

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Book 6 (of 52) – A Flicker In The Dark

A Flicker In The Dark – Stacy Willingham

Twenty years ago, Chloe Davis found the evidence that put her father in prison for the murder of six teenage girls that had gone missing.  When a new set of girls start to go missing, girls with some connection to Chloe, she starts to investigate on her own.  When her suspicions turn a little closer to home, she digs deeper and discovers plenty of new family secrets, both her own and others.

A Flicker In The Dark, the debut novel from Stacy Willingham, is the latest best mystery and thriller nominee from the 2022 Goodreads Choice Awards to cross my Kindle.  She puts her own spin on a familiar premise and, with her newest novel released last month, I look forward to what comes next.

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Fitbit IX – Week 2

A bummer of a week, rescued only somewhat by a day of adventure on Saturday.  The week got off to a slow start on Sunday as I managed to record just 2600 steps.  Monday saw a slight improvement, managing to get up to 3000 steps.  Tuesday was easily the low point of the week, finishing just over 2000 steps.  A slight uptick on Wednesday left me 9 steps away from 2500.  Another jump on Thursday put me over 3300 steps.  Another jump on Friday pushed me over the 4100-step mark.  A trip to Bloomington on Saturday to see Purdue lose to the hated Hoosiers resulted in a big improvement, scoring over 6000 steps.

Total steps: 23,803

Daily average: 3400.4

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Book 5 (of 52) – The IT Girl

The IT Girl – Ruth Ware

When the man convicted of killing her college roommate dies in prison, a pregnant woman starts to question whether things happened as she thought they did years ago.  She starts reaching out to old friends and returns to her old stomping grounds in an effort to prove, one way or the other, what really happened that night.  The only question is can she do so while keeping herself and her family safe?

I was a little down on Ruth Ware’s latest, The It Girl, in the early going.  The big bad seemed patently obvious, and I had a hard time getting in to the story.  Eventually, though, I got through it and became engrossed as the story progressed.  The obvious big bad ended up being a red herring, but there was some shaky, out of character behavior that was never explained to point arrows in his direction.  If you’re going to make someone act like the bad guy to throw the reader a curveball, you should circle back and explain why he acted that way when he turns out not to be the bad guy.  Aside from that, this turned out to be another enjoyable work from Ware.

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Yet Another Mix Tape Monday – Volume 4

33 years ago, during my sophomore year of high school, I put together the first of what would eventually become a nearly 20 volume collection of mix tapes, containing my favorite songs that I had gathered either from the radio, a cassette tape, or (eventually) CD.  Today, we revisit those mix tapes for the fourth time and see how, or if, the soundtrack of my youth still resonates in today’s digital world and how much has changed over the past four years.

Volume 4 places us smack dab in the middle of my junior year of high school, from late 1990 and into 1991, and, quite possibly, the worst entry in this series.  There are 20 cassettes in this series, comprised of 287 songs.  Nearly 25% of them has been performed by a band I have seen in concert.  In fact, ever single entry contains at least one song by a band I have seen live.  Except this one.

Five of the songs here are older hits that weren’t current during my junior year.  Six of the songs come from just two bands: Poison and Roxette.  Judging solely from songs contained on this tape, you would have a hard time believing that Nirvana’s Nevermind would be released later that year and that the music industry would sound completely different a year later.

Side A

Damn Yankees – High Enough
iTunes stats: 15 plays, most recently on 7/28/2022

Peaking at #3 on the Billboard charts, the one big hit from the supergroup featuring right-wing douchenozzle Ted Nugent added only five new plays since 2017.

Sweet Sensation – If Wishes Came True
iTunes stats: 16 plays, most recently on 12/20/2021

The #25 hit of 1990 added three additional listens over the past four years.

Poison – Fallen Angel
iTunes stats: 28 plays, most recently on 11/10/2022

Poison’s hit from 1988, the only single from Open Up and Say… Ahh! not to crack the top 10, got six additional listens over the past four years.

Simpsons – Do The Bartman
iTunes stats: 15 plays, most recently on 3/23/2022

The first hit from the animated TV family, which went to #1 in five countries but wasn’t officially released as a single in the US, added seven new listens since 2019.

Roxette – The Look
iTunes stats: 20 plays, most recently on 12/22/2022

Ranked as the #17 single of 1989, the hit for the Swedish duo gained nine new spins over the past four years.

Poison – I Won’t Forget You
iTunes stats: 13 plays, most recently on 12/12/2021

The fourth single from Poison’s debut album, originally taped off a mixtape I “borrowed” from my friend Mike’s sister, managed just four additional plays since 2019.

Side B

Continue reading →