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Book 44 (of 52) – Ready Player Two

Ready Player Two – Ernest Cline

Ernest Cline returns with Ready Player Two, the follow-up to his wildly successful 2011 debut.  The members of the High Five have taken control of GSS and the OASIS, but have drifted apart due their new-found fame and responsibilities, and their reactions to it.  When, following the introduction of a new way to connect to the OASIS, a new challenge appears, Parzival sets off to once again solve it.  Once he finds the first shard, however, he learns that everything is not what it seemed and his benefactor may not have been the good person he sold himself to be.  With the fate of the world hanging in the balance, Parzival and his friends have less than 12 hours to solve this latest challenge.

It took me a while to jump on the Ready Player One bandwagon, but, once I did, I thoroughly enjoyed it.  That said, I was a little worried about revisiting the world.  And, as it turns out, my worries were well justified.  This second outing was missing all of the charm of the original, making the callbacks to 80 nostalgia feel much more contrived.  For Cline’s sake, I hope this was caused by the money grab that likely inspired the sequel and not an indicator of the direction his future work will take.

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October Leaders – Through 2020

With a full year of baseball on tap after last year’s troubles due to a combination of the corona virus and needless labor squabbles, I thought it would be interesting to look at the all time leaders in both offensive and defensive categories for each month in games that I have attended.

As we wrap up the regular season and head in to post-season play, the usual futility of Chicago teams has led to my attending only 36 games during the month, my lowest total since March.  I’ve managed to see a game on 21 out of the 31 days of the month, with 4 games on 2 separate occasions leading the way, and no games on the 10th, 13th, 16,th, 17th, 24th, 25th, 26th, 27th, 28th, and 31st.

Home Runs

Name Total
Kris Bryant 4
Javier Baez 3
Dexter Fowler 3
BJ Upton 3
Enrique Hernandez 3
Miguel Cabrera 3
Paul Konerko 3

Hits

Name Total
Kris Bryant 11
Javier Baez 11
Dexter Fowler 10
Anthony Rizzo 10

Runs

Name Total
Dexter Fowler 7
Juan Pierre 7
Paul Konerko 6
Daniel Murphy 6

RBI

Name Total
Kris Bryant 9
Paul Konerko 7
Miguel Cabrera 7
Ivan Rodriguez 7
Enrique Hernandez 7

Doubles

Name Total
Dexter Fowler 4
7 tied with  3

Triples Continue reading →

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A Double Birthday

Just like two years ago, we celebrate Angelina’s (and my) birthday with this picture of us, taken just minutes before the end of our birthday as Danny’s band competition wrapped up at the Dome at America’s Center in St. Louis and we were getting ready to go out and “celebrate” with a late night dinner at a dive diner, which went about as well as you can imagine, considering it was the Saturday night before Halloween.

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Fitbit VII – Week 39

Another disappointing week, though I did manage to get back up over 30,000 steps.  Things got off to what passes for a decent enough start on Sunday, as I finished 20 steps shy of 4600.  Monday was slightly better, as I got outside for a walk around the block which helped put me over 5200 steps.  Tuesday fell off a bit, coming just 22 steps away from 4000.  Wednesday, as usual, was the worst day of the week, falling down to 3000 steps.  Thursday saw a healthy increase, jumping back up to 4700 steps.  Friday was even better, thanks to a day off and a trip down to the south side for lunch at Ricobene’s and some walking around Armour Square Park and Guaranteed Rate Field, finishing only 34 steps shy of 6900.  Saturday was a bust of a day, with only 3300 steps.

Total steps: 31,872

Daily average: 4553.1

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Prolific Authors – 8 Books

Way back in December of 2011 (and again every other December since), we’ve taken a look at the authors I have read the most, dating back to high school.  This year, since I’ve far surpassed my reading output of any year on record, I thought it would be nice to take a deeper dive into those books I’ve read through August. Since our last check-in, I’ve read an additional 60 books from 54 different authors. There shouldn’t be much movement over the past 2 years, but it’s time to take another look and see if my “favorite” authors have changed much in that time span.  Today, we continue with the sole authors I’ve read 8 times.

Double Helix – Peter David

Peter David

The prolific comic book writer shows up mostly with Star Trek: The Next Generation novels that I read in high school.  Only two of his works show up from this century, the collection of his But I Digress columns from the Comics Buyer’s Guide and yet another Next Gen novel, which I read earlier this year.

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By The Numbers – 34

In 1929, uniform numbers appeared on the back of baseball jerseys for the first time, thanks to the Indians and the Yankees.  By 1937, numbers finally appeared across all uniforms, both home and away, across both major leagues.  Since that time, 81 distinct numbers have been worn by members of the White Sox, while the Cubs boast 76.

Today, we continue our look at those players, picking our favorite, if not the best, player to wear each uniform number for both Chicago teams with #35.  82 players have donned #34 on each side of town, including 50 for the White Sox and 32 for the Cubs.

Kerry Wood was the fourth overall selection in the first round of the 1995 draft, making his major league debut for the Cubs less than 3 years later.  Making his fifth major league start in May of 1998, Wood would cement his place in Cubs lore and baseball history, striking out 20 and giving up a single hit against the Astros.  Wood helped the Cubs to the Wild Card, their first post-season appearance since 1989.  An injured elbow, however, cost him the 1999 season and, just maybe, altered the course of his career.  He led the Cubs rotation as they made a surprising run towards the World Series in 2003, coming up a mere 5 outs short.  By 2007, he was moved to the bullpen full time,  After quick detours with the Indians and the Yankees, he returned to the Cubs in 2011 and retired in May of 2012, striking out Dayan Viciedo in his final appearance in a crosstown tilt.

On the south side of town, young phenom Michael Kopech may end up owning the number across both teams.  But for now, we will split the difference between three pitchers, each of whom helped lead the White Sox to a playoff appearance.  Richard Dotson switched to #34 in 1983, just in time to go 22-7 as the White Sox won their first division title.  Acquired in 2004, Freddy Garcia donned the number while winning the clinching game 4 of the 2005 World Series.  His replacement in the rotation, beginning in 2007, was Gavin Floyd, who also wore the number as the White Sox won their latest division title in 2008.

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Turning Over The Front Office

Last November, with one year left on his contract, Theo Epstein stepped away from the Cubs and general manager Jed Hoyer took his spot as president of baseball operations.  The ongoing pandemic left the remainder of the front office as is, until this week, when the Cubs quietly (or as quietly as the Cubs can do anything) announced they had hired Carter Hawkins as their new general manager, filling Hoyer’s former role.  Hawkins had spent his entire 14 year career in Cleveland’s front office, mostly on the player development side.

Elsewhere in the front office, assistant GM Randy Bush, who has been with the team since 2005 and in his position since 2006, announced this week that he would be “stepping back” after a pandemic-fueled life assessment.  He will move into an advisory role that will allow him to spend more time with his family at their Florida home.  The Cubs are expected to hire Ehsan Bokhari as assistant GM following the World Series.  Bokhari is currently the Senior Director of Player Evaluation for the Astros, who won the AL pennant last night.

Finally, at least for now, senior vice president of player personnel Jason McLeod announced he would be leaving the organization.  He joined 10 years ago, along with Theo and Jed, and oversaw an overhaul of the scouting and player development groups before transitioning to his current role.

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Book 43 (of 52) – The Stone Monkey

The Stone Monkey – Jeffery Deaver

When a ship carrying Chinese citizens looking to sneak into the United States explodes and sinks off the coast of Long Island, the few survivors try to stay a step ahead of the snakehead they paid to smuggle them across the ocean who is looking to tie up loose ends.  Working with the INS and the FBI, Lincoln and Amelia, working with an undercover Chinese officer who survived the sinking boat, try to find the surviving immigrants before the snakehead can, while also trying to locate him and bring him to justice.

The Stone Monkey, the fourth entry in the Lincoln Rhyme series by Jeffery Deaver, is the 12th of the (soon to be) 15 entries in the series.  Now that I am armed with a library card, I’m sure I will track down whichever ones I haven’t already purchased and have waiting on my Kindle.

 

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Fitbit VII – Week 38

And yet another disappointing week.  Things got off to a decent enough start on Sunday, as Game 3 of the ALDS led me to 5300 steps.  Monday was slightly lower due to rain surpassing 4800 steps.  Game 4, and the end of the White Sox season, came on Tuesday, as I finished with 4700 steps.  Wednesday fell even lower, falling down to 3300 steps.  Thursday saw a slight increase, jumping back up to 4200 steps.  Friday was even better, as I finished only 17 steps shy of 4700.  Saturday was a bust of a day, with only 2500 steps.

Total steps: 29,578

Daily average: 4225.4