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2017 New Fall Season – Sundays

old-tv-set1It is time once again to dive in to the new fall lineups for the television season that kicks into gear tonight. We start this year with Sunday night’s offerings, which features very little programming that interests me.

8:00

Shameless – Season 8 of the show is on tap to return in November

The Walking Dead – I kind of lost interest in season 7, following the (in my opinion) bungling of the introduction of Negan in the previous season finale.  I have 14 episodes sitting on the DVR, so it may soon be time for a decision on whether to continue with the show or not.

 

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Kind Of Sprinted And Strode Once Again

Tuesday, Allstate held their annual Sprint and Stride event, a 5K race around campus, which this year would benefit the Purple Purse project to help victims of domestic violence.  I signed up again this year, my fourth, along with some co-workers to get out in the afternoon sun and enjoy getting paid to exercise.

After last year’s fiasco, I had high hopes of actually finishing the race this year.  Once again, that wasn’t in the cards.  For the second year in a row, we arrived at the starting gate well after the big throng of people had been sent on their way.  We did make it further than last year, but when the decision came to turn right and do the full 3.1 miles or turn left and cut things short, the majority voted for left.  After making it to the finish line, we were able to cash in on the free water and bananas.  Ironically, this was the first year that I managed to make the official listings, with an abbreviated time of 56:15.30, which was somehow the worst time of the three of us.

Last year’s race was near the beginning of what would turn out to be a year of shit.  A year later, things aren’t necessarily any better.  That said, I’m sure I’ll be out there next year, hopefully with some of the same companions.

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Looking Ahead To Next Year

baseballs3Major League Baseball released their tentative 2018 schedule last week.  While the local squads have differing goals in mind as 2017 winds down, with the Cubs looking to repeat as World Series champions and the White Sox playing out the string in year one of their rebuild, it’s time to turn our attention to next summer for both teams.

The White Sox open their season on the road in Kansas City on March 29 against the Royals, and then open the home portion of the campaign a week later against the Tigers.

The interleague schedule pits the White Sox against the NL Central, with trips to St. Louis, Pittsburgh, and Cincinnati and home series against the Pirates, Cardinals, and the Brewers.  The rivalry with their north side foes continues with a 3 game series at Wrigley Field in May and then moving back to the south side in late September.

The season ends with a 6 game homestand against the Cubs and Indians before heading to Minnesota for the final weekend.  Year two of the rebuild can see the White Sox playing spoiler down the stretch.

Meanwhile, on the north side, the Cubs open the season down in Miami on March 29.  They kick off the home portion of their schedule on April 9 against the Pirates.

The interleague schedule pits the Cubs against the AL Central, with trips to Cleveland, Kansas City, and Detroit and home series against the Indians, Twins, and the Tigers.

The Cubs end the year with a 7 game homestand against the Pirates and the Cardinals, likely challengers for the NL Central crown.

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Fitbit III: Week 33

A tough week, both in the step game and emotionally.  Things got off to a slow start on Sunday, with under 5000 steps, despite a trip to Guaranteed Rate Field.  Monday bounced back a bit, finishing a whole 30 steps above goal, despite learning some people I loved were in a bad spot.  Tuesday was another down day, in which I spent hours during the day with Val trying to figure out her life then spending more hours at night with Hayley trying to do the same.  Wednesday bounced back again, this time 32 steps above goal, with another afternoon spent trying to help Val.  Thursday almost hit 7000 steps, for reasons that are now unknown to me.  Friday was back down again, finishing under 4800 steps.  Saturday used a good neighborhood walk to make it the week’s most successful day, finishing just over 8500 steps.

Total steps: 43,263

Daily average: 6180.4

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You Ought To Be In (21) Pictures

Movie_Reel_22

Many years ago, using the weekly TV guide that came with the Sunday Chicago Tribune, I started keeping track of all of the movies I had seen over the course of my lifetime.  The guide would list the two main stars for each movie, and that is a tradition that I’ve carried on in my database ever since.  So, given those guidelines, it is time to look at all of the actors that have starred in at least 10 films that I have seen, as of July 1.

Today, we look at the 1 actor that has starred in 21 movies that I have seen, though a different one from the 1 actor 3 years ago.

George Clooney

A 2 spot jump for Clooney, thanks to Gravity, which I saw in 2014 after the cutoff, and 2016’s Money Monster, which I saw earlier this year.

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2017 Emmy Awards – Drama

Emmy_statueTonight’s the night for the Emmy Awards, so it’s time to finish off my predictions for the awards.  Today, we’re focusing on the awards for Dramas.  I most likely have seen most of these shows, so, unlike my annual Oscar predictions, I will not mostly be going on gut feel and word of mouth, but will have a somewhat informed decision.

Outstanding Drama

Better Call Saul

The Crown

The Handmaid’s Tale

 

House of Cards

Stranger Things

This Is Us

Westworld

I watched two of these, but I don’t expect either of them to win.  With Westworld being HBO’s only entry, my guess is it will take home the prize.

Outstanding Actress In A Drama

Viola Davis, How To Get Away With Murder

Claire Foy, The Crown

Elisabeth Moss, The Handmaid’s Tale

Keri Russell, The Americans

Evan Rachel Wood, Westworld

Robin Wright, House of Cards

If it were up to me, I’d give the award to either Keri Russell, but I assume that Viola Davis will take home the prize.

Outstanding Actor In A Drama

Sterling K. Brown, This Is Us

Anthony Hopkins, Westworld

Bob Odenkirk, Better Call Saul

Matthew Rhys, The Americans

Liev Schreiber, Ray Donovan

Kevin Spacey, House of Cards

Milo Ventimiglia, This Is Us

Some new blood in this category.  I’m assuming that Brown and Ventimiglia will split the vote and leave Sir Hopkins to claim victory.

Continue reading →

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2017 Emmy Awards – Reality and Movies

Emmy_statueWith the Emmy Awards scheduled for Sunday night, here’s day two of my predictions for the awards, today focusing on reality shows and made for TV movies.  I likely have seen not seen most (any?) of these, so I will probably not have an informed decision, but when has that ever stopped me.

Outstanding Reality Show Host

Alec Baldwin, Match Game

W. Kamau Bell, United Shades Of America

RuPaul Charles, RuPaul’s Drag Race

Heidi Klum and Tim Gunn, Project Runway

Gordon Ramsay, MasterChef Junior

Martha Stewart and Snoop Dogg, Martha & Snoop’s Potluck Dinner Party

RuPaul already took home the prize for hosting the long-running hit.

Outstanding Reality Show Competition

The Amazing Race

American Ninja Warrior

Project Runway

RuPaul’s Drag Race

Top Chef

The Voice

The Amazing Race is the usual favorite in this category and I don’t see a reason for that to change this year.

Outstanding Variety Talk Series

Full Frontal with Samantha Bee

Jimmy Kimmel Live

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert

The Late Late Show with James Corden

Real Time with Bill Maher

A little more turnover here, thanks to the ongoing changes that is the late night landscape.  I think John Oliver and his HBO show, Last Week Tonight, certainly deserves the award.

Outstanding Variety Sketch Series

Billy On The Street

Documentary Now!

Drunk History

Portlandia

Saturday Night Live

Tracey Ullman’s Show

Given the election boost, I’m going to give the nod to SNL this time around.

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Book 18 (of 52) – The Body Electric

The Body Electric – David Mack

Nearly a year after finishing the first installment of David Mack’s Cold Equations trilogy, I worked through the third and final book, The Body Electric.  In this tale, the Enterprise encounters two old friends as an artificial intelligence threatens all life in the entire galaxy.

In this trilogy, Mack succeeds in bringing Data back from the inglorious death he suffered in Star Trek: Nemesis, the final film featuring the Next Generation cast.  He sets things up for future novels (are there any?) to bring the character back in to the main cast, if a story needed it.  I’ll need to keep my eyes open for any future Kindle sales, so I can return to the 24th century for future adventures.

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2017 Emmy Awards – Comedy

Emmy_statueWith the Emmy Awards scheduled for Sunday night, here are my predictions for the awards for Comedy shows.  I most likely have seen most of these shows, so, unlike my annual Oscar predictions, I will not mostly be going on gut feel and word of mouth, but will have a somewhat informed decision.

Outstanding Comedy

Atlanta

Black-ish

Master of None

Modern Family

Silicon Valley

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

Veep

Veep has won for the past two years and would seem to be a good choice to three-peat, so I’ll go with that.

Outstanding Actress In A Comedy

Pamela Adlon, Better Things

Jane Fonda, Grace and Frankie

Allison Janney, Mom

Ellie Kemper, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Veep

Tracee Ellis Ross, Black-ish

Lily Tomlin, Grace and Frankie

Julia Louis-Dreyfus won this award the past four years, and I see no reason why she won’t repeat again this year.

Outstanding Actor In A Comedy

Anthony Anderson, Black-ish

Aziz Ansari, Master of None

Zach Galifianakis, Baskets

Donald Glover, Atlanta

William H. Macy, Shameless

Jeffrey Tambor, Transparent

Jeffrey Tambor brought home the award the past two years for his gender-bending role on Amazon’s hit series, but I’m going to go out on a limb and go with Donald Glover.

Continue reading →

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Fitbit III: Week 32

A great week, surpassing 60,000 steps for the first time in 5 weeks despite off days to start and end the week.  Things got off to a slow start on Sunday, finishing just over 5000 steps due in part to a solo trip to Guaranteed Rate Field.  Monday used an afternoon walk to cross 8500 days, pretty good for the Labor Day holiday.  Tuesday was another day off work and my first 10,000 step day of the week.  Wednesday was back to work, but still managed to surpass Tuesday’s total for my first back-to-back 10,000 step days since the end of July.  Thursday dropped back down to only 8000 steps, before Friday combined an afternoon walk around campus with a trip to the mini golf course with Hayley to approach 13,000 steps.  Saturday ended just over 6000 steps with another trip to Guaranteed Rate Field.

Total steps: 60,676

Daily average: 8668