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Book 13 (of 52) – Not Quite Dead Yet

Not Quite Dead Yet – Holly Jackson

When Jet Mason is violently attacked on Halloween night, she barely survives but has a ticking time bomb in her brain that will kill her within a week.  Rather than risking a surgery she likely wouldn’t survive anyway, she decides to spend her remaining time trying to find out who attacked her and why.  Staying with her childhood best friend, she starts investigating, uncovering family secrets involving her parents, her brother and sister-in-law, and her long-dead sister.  When she dies without learning the truth, her friend puts the final pieces together to find out the truth.

Winner of the 2025 Goodreads Choice Award for Favorite Mystery and Thriller, Holly Jackson’s Not Quite Dead Yet puts a unique spin on the genre in her first novel intended for adults.  While searching for her “killer” is the main motivation of the Jet character, she learns more about herself during the investigation than she bargained for, finding how the choices she’s made, in the wake of her sister’s death, led her to where she is in the present and the regrets she will have now that time is no longer an unlimited resource.  I enjoyed this enough to keep an eye on Jackson’s back catalog and for any future output.

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Braden Watch

Braden Smith finished Big Ten Conference play with nine assists in Saturday’s loss to Wisconsin, keeping him in fourth place on the NCAA’s career assists chart.  Smith is now just one assists away from tying North Carolina’s Ed Cota for third place and 47 away from Bobby Hurley’s record of 1076 as we head into the Big Ten Tournament.  At his current pace of 8.7 assists per game, Smith would need Purdue to play at six games between the Big Ten Tournament and the NCAA Tournament in order to best Hurley.  With the way they have been playing, that does not seem likely.

1,076 – Bobby Hurley
1,038 – Chris Corchiani
1,030 – Ed Cota
1,029 – Braden Smith

Smith ends his career with 585 assists in Big Ten Conference games, extending his record by 107 assists over Cassius Winston.  Purdue makes their first appearance in the Big Ten Conference Tournament on Thursday.

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iTunes Top 200 Artists: #111-120

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.

We continue today with our next batch of ten artists, covering a little hip hop and a lot of 90s alternative rock.

#120: Me First and the Gimme Gimmes
iTunes stats: 87 plays
Previous ranking: #125

The punk rock supergroup, formed in San Francisco in 1995 and who only do covers, added 21 additional listens to the four tracks that are in my collection.

#119: Arrested Development
iTunes stats: 88 plays
Previous ranking: #122

The Atlanta-based new age rap band rises three slots thanks to 21 new listens to their three songs in my collection over the past five years.

#116: K’s Choice
iTunes stats: 91 plays
Previous ranking: #110

Only 18 new listens spread across the five different tracks from the arguable one-hit wonders from Belgium over these past five years led to a six-spot drop.

#116: MC Hammer
iTunes stats: 91 plays
Previous ranking: #122

The Oakland-born rapper, who served as a batboy for the A’s and earned the Hammer name due to a resemblance to Hank Aaron, added 24 plays to the five tracks in my collection.  Oh yeah, he was also the headliner of my first concert way back in 1992.

#116: Collective Soul
Continue reading →

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Second To None

A disappointing senior day loss to Wisconsin yesterday did have one bright spot for Fletcher Loyer.  Making six three-pointers, he surpassed Carsen Edwards to become Purdue’s all-time leader in career three-pointers made with 282.  He also became the all-time leader in career three-pointers made at Mackey Arena with 148, passing David Teague’s 146.

Finishing with 23 points, Loyer ended the game with 1,704 career points, moving him moving into fifteenth place on the Purdue’s all-time scoring list.  Loyer and Braden Smith also played in their 141st career game, tying Dakota Mathias for the most games played in Purdue history.

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Twins All Time Leaders – Through 2025

To paraphrase from a famous movie, the one constant through all the years has been baseball.  With less than a month until regular season baseball, we continue our look at the all-time leaders in both offensive and defensive categories for all 30 teams. Today, we take a deeper dive into the Minnesota Twins.

The Twins originated in 1901 as the Washington Senators, one of the charter members of the American League.  When Minneapolis was given an expansion team to begin play in 1961, owner Calvin Griffith requested to move the Senators to Minnesota, becoming the Twins, and to have the expansion franchise take over the Senators name in Washington.  I’ve seen 232 players don the Twins uniform in 69 games at three different stadiums, including the division-title deciding game 163 in 2008 at US Cellular Field.

Home Runs

Name Total
Oswaldo Arcia 6
Jorge Polanco 6
Jason Kubel 4
Brian Dozier 4
Torii Hunter 4
Max Kepler 4

Hits

Name Total
Joe Mauer 43
Justin Morneau 25
Trevor Plouffe 23

Runs

Name Total
Joe Mauer 19
Jorge Polanco 14
Brian Dozier 13

RBI

Name Total
Jorge Polanco 16
Justin Morneau 15
Oswaldo Arcia 14

Doubles

Name Total
Trevor Plouffe 6
Justin Morneau 5
Oswaldo Arcia 5
Joe Mauer 5
Brian Dozier 5

Triples Continue reading →

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Reds All Time Leaders – Through 2025

redsTo paraphrase from a famous movie, the one constant through all the years has been baseball.  With the winter meetings starting today, we continue our look at the all-time leaders in both offensive and defensive categories for all 30 teams. Today, we take a deeper dive into the Cincinnati Reds.

The Reds began life in 1882 as a charter member of the American Association, joining the National League in 1890.  I’ve seen 197 players don a Reds uniform in the 41 games of theirs that I’ve attended, at four separate stadiums across two states.

Home Runs

Name Total
Adam Dunn 12
Austin Kearns 3
Edwin Encarnacion 3

Hits

Name Total
Adam Dunn 24
Ken Griffey Jr. 19
Sean Casey 18

Runs

Name Total
Adam Dunn 22
Sean Casey 12
Brandon Phillips 10

RBI

Name Total
Adam Dunn 27
Ken Griffey Jr. 12
Austin Kearns 10

Doubles

Name Total
Jason LaRue 5
Adam Dunn 4
Austin Kearns 4

Triples Continue reading →

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And The Nominees Are…

Next Sunday, it will be time to play the music and to light the lights for the 98th Academy Awards.  Once again, my woeful predictions are back, despite not having seen, let alone heard of the majority of the nominated films.  But I’m not going to let that stop me, so, with less basis in fact than most years, here’s my uneducated predictions for the non-acting awards.

Best Original Screenplay

Robert Kaplow, Blue Moon
Jafar Panahi; in collaboration with Nader Saïvar, Shadmehr Rastin, and Mehdi Mahmoudian, It Was Just an Accident
Ronald Bronstein and Josh Safdie, Marty Supreme
Eskil Vogt and Joachim Trier, Sentimental Value
Ryan Coogler, Sinners

I’ve heard of a whopping two of these films but only seen one, so I will go with Ryan Coogler and Sinners.

Best Adapted Screenplay

Will Tracy, Bugonia
Guillermo del Toro, Frankenstein
Chloé Zhao and Maggie O’Farrell, Hamnet
Paul Thomas Anderson, One Battle After Another
Clint Bentley and Greg Kwedar, Train Dreams

I’ve actually seen two of these films and heard of one other, so I’ll go with Bugonia.

Best Animated Feature

Arco
Elio
KPop Demon Hunters
Little Amélie or the Character of Rain
Zootopia 2

Taking a shot in the dark as I haven’t seen any of these and have only heard of two of them.

Best Cinematography

Dan Laustsen, Frankenstein
Darius Khondji, Marty Supreme
Michael Bauman, One Battle After Another
Autumn Durald Arkapaw, Sinners
Adolpho Veloso, Train Dreams

Of the two of these that I’ve seen, I’m going with the more classic one.

Best Costume Design

Deborah L. Scott, Avatar: Fire and Ash
Kate Hawley, Frankenstein
Malgosia Turzanska, Hamnet
Miyako Bellizzi, Marty Supreme
Ruth E. Carter, Sinners

This seems like another win for Sinners.

Continue reading →

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Braden Watch

With nine assists in yesterday’s victory over Northwestern, Braden Smith remains in fourth place on the NCAA’s career assists chart.  With just one regular season game remaining, Smith is now ten assists away from tying North Carolina’s Ed Cota for third place and 54 away from Bobby Hurley’s record of 1076.  At his current pace of 8.7 assists per game, Smith would need over six more games to reach Hurley, meaning Purdue would need to play at least five games between the Big Ten Tournament and the NCAA Tournament.

1,076 – Bobby Hurley
1,038 – Chris Corchiani
1,030 – Ed Cota
1,020 – Braden Smith

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Fitbit 12 – Week 6

A return to seasonably appropriate weather did not stop me from reaching 30,000 steps for the third straight week.  Things got off to an ok start on Sunday, falling 29 steps away from 4000.  An increase on Monday led to 4400 steps.  A slight drop on Tuesday left me with 4100 steps.  Wednesday saw a slight increase, as I needed 14 more steps to reach 4200.  A trip to the office on Thursday left me just 6 steps shy of 4700.  Another work visit, plus a morning appointment at the doctor’s office, ended Friday a mere 5 steps short of 5400.  A cool Saturday wrapped the week up with 4400 steps.

Total steps: 31,213

Daily average: 4459

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Express Train From West Lafayette To Canton

Former Purdue quarterback Drew Brees, who led the school to their last Rose Bowl appearance in 2001, got the call to Canton last month as a member of the NFL’s Hall of Fame class of 2026.  Brees joins the hall alongside Roger Craig, Larry Fitzgerald, Luke Kuechly, and Adam Vinatieri and will be inducted August 8 in Canton, Ohio.

Receiving scholarship offers from only two schools, Brees arrived in West Lafayette as an unheralded freshman in 1997.  He became the starter the following year and, alongside head coach Joe Tiller, helped lead a resurrection of a moribund football program.  He left Purdue following the 2000 season with two NCAA records, thirteen Big Ten Conference records, and 19 program records.

His NFL career began in 2001 after being selected by the Chargers in the second round of the draft.  After backing up Doug Flutie in his rookie season, Brees became the starting quarterback for the Chargers for the majority of the following four seasons.  Following the 2005 season, Brees became a free agent and headed to New Orleans, where he became a legend.  In 2009, he led the Saints to their first Super Bowl appearance and championship in franchise history.  He retired in 2021 as a thirteen-time Pro Bowler, two-time NFL Offensive Player of the Year, the 2006 Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year, and holding eight league records and fourteen Saints franchise records.