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Global Fit Year 4: The Conclusion

Last year, as the 4th year of the GlobalFit program was getting underway, I set a goal to average 5500 steps per day, for a year total of 2,002,000 steps.  Of course, the whole shebang got shut down earlier this year, cutting things short.

Y4Halfway6 months ago, at the halfway point for the year, I was 51% of the way to my goal.  If you take the first part of the year from the GlobalFit program and finish it off with my results from Fitbit, did I reach my goal?

The answer is a resounding yes!  Adding the two together, which also lost over a week between the end of GlobalFit and the arrival of the Fitbit, I finished with 2,150,392 steps, 107% of my goal.  I repeated the same goal for this first go around with the Fitbit and, as we near the halfway point for the year, I’m already well over 50% of the goal.  Hopefully this ends up translating to some improved weight/health numbers.

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#145 – Bryan Little

bryanlittleName: Bryan Little

Rank: 145

Position: 2B

Years With White Sox: 1985-1986

Following the 1984 season, the White Sox acquired second baseman Bryan Little from the Expos for Bert Roberge.

Little appeared in 73 games for the White Sox in 1985, hitting .250 with a career high 2 home runs.  He returned to the south side for the 1986 season, but saw his playing time, and production, drop significantly.  On July 2, his tenure with the White Sox came to an end when he was purchased by the Yankees.

In 1993, Little returned to the White Sox organization as a roving minor league instructor and became an advance scout in 2001, a position he still holds today.

Little’s numbers in a White Sox uniform, both for games I attended and overall, were:

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Fitbit Week 22

Week22_FBA pretty spectacular week, where every day was over 6,000 steps, 5 days were above 8,000 steps, and 3 days were above 10,000 steps, which resulted in my best week since heading to Disney World 2 years ago.  Things got off to a good start on Sunday, when I took a nice long walk around the neighborhood.  Monday and Tuesday both saw me taking some time during the work day to explore the campus in addition to my afternoon coffee trip.  Wednesday benefited from an slightly abbreviated version of Sunday’s trip after work.  Thursday and Friday were back down to somewhat normal totals.  Saturday consisted on a trip to US Cellular Field to watch exciting White Sox baseball.

I also managed to pass 1,000,000 steps for the year this week, 4 weeks before the half way point.  While I didn’t set a specific goal, I think I’m on a good pace for surpassing my daily goal, which projects out to 2,002,000 steps.

Total steps: 64,405

Daily average: 9200.7

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Mix Tape Monday Revisited – Volume 15

Between 1989, my sophomore year of high school, and 1995, my fourth year of college, I put together 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. Three years ago, we looked back at all 20 volumes and which of my “favorite” songs I still listened to. Today, we revisit those mix tapes and see how things have changed in the last 3 years.

Volume 15 takes us into through the summer of 1994 and into the fall and my junior year of college. The song selection is, again, mostly alternative with some west coast gangsta rap.

Side A

Frente! – Labour Of Love

The hit from Marvin! The Album picked up an impressive 6 additional listens over the last 3 years.

2012 iTunes stats: 10 plays

2015 iTunes stats: 16 plays, most recently on 4/29/2015

Mazzy Star – Fade Into You

The mesmerizing tune from Hope Sandoval and company nearly tripled its total for an amazing 16 play increase.

2012 iTunes stats: 9 plays

2015 iTunes stats: 25 plays, most recently on 6/23/2015

Nirvana – Verse Chorus Verse

A modest 2 listen increase for this posthumous B-side from the trio from Seattle.

2012 iTunes stats: 9 plays

2015 iTunes stats: 11 plays, most recently on 3/14/2013

Warren G – This D.J.

An infinite increase for the lesser-received follow up to Regulate.

2012 iTunes stats: Never played

2015 iTunes stats: 4 plays, most recently on 7/3/2015

Cracker – Eurotrash Girl

The hidden track picked up 3 additional listens over the past 3 years.

2012 iTunes stats: 10 plays

2015 iTunes stats: 13 plays, most recently on 2/10/2015

Stone Temple Pilots – Interstate Love Song

The latest hit from STP added 4 new listens over the past 3 years, despite not being heard in over a year.

2012 iTunes stats: 1 play, on 10/3/2010

2015 iTunes stats: 5 plays, most recently on 7/1/2014

Gin Blossoms – Allison Road

The Gin Blossoms latest nearly doubled its total over the last 3 years.

2012 iTunes stats: 7 plays

2015 iTunes stats: 13 plays, most recently on 5/8/2015

Weezer – Undone (The Sweater Song)

The debut hit from Weezer added 4 new listens over the past 3 years.

2012 iTunes stats: 9 plays

2015 iTunes stats: 13 plays, most recently on 4/14/2015

Side B

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Book 16 (of 52) – The President’s Shadow

The President's Shadow - Brad Meltzer

The President’s Shadow – Brad Meltzer

After a 2 year hiatus, Brad Meltzer returns with the latest installment of his Culper Ring series.  In this installment, archivist Beecher White tries to find out the truth about his father’s death while working to keep the president safe from an unknown assailant.

Meltzer tweaks his formula of the little man going up against the Washington DC power structure, this time having Beecher more or less working with the government.  Similar to his last book, the one knock I have against this book is that it assumes that you have read the previous entries in the series, with little in the way of proper introduction for returning characters.  A perusal of the early reviews on Goodreads.com show that this was an issue for new readers.

I assume the next book in the series will be coming out sometime in 2017.  I’ll be waiting.

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#146 – Joel Skinner

joelskinnerName: Joel Skinner

Rank: 146

Position: C

Years With White Sox: 1983-1986

Acquired in 1982 by the White Sox as a free agent compensation pick from the Pirates organization, Joel Skinner made his major league debut on June 12, 1983 in a victory over the A’s.  He appeard in only 6 games for the eventual AL West champions, garnering 3 hits in 11 at bats.

Skinner again split time between the minor leagues and the major leagues in 1984, though he had more of a lasting impact at the big league level than the year before.  He appeared in 43 games for the White Sox, struggling at the plate and hitting only .213.

Skinner got another opportunity with the White Sox in 1985, when backup catcher Marc Hill went down with a hip contusion.  He appeared in 22 games and hit a surprising .341.  This convinced incoming general manager Ken Harrelson that he was ready to take over behind the plate in 1986.

To accomodate Skinner, Harrelson had manager Tony LaRussa move Carlton Fisk to left field.  The White Sox stumbled out of the gate and Skinner struggled to hit.  On May 9, with Skinner hitting in the .150s and LaRussa’s job on the line, he moved Fisk back behind the plate and the White Sox proceeded to win 10 of their next 13 games.  Skinner got another chance behind the plate in July when a virus knocked Fisk out of the lineup, but his days with the team were numbered.

As the trade deadline approached at the end of July, Skinner, along with Ron Kittle and Wayne Tolleson, were sent to the Yankees in exchange for Ron Hassey, Carlos Martinez, and a player to be named later, who eventually became Bill Lindsey.

Skinner’s numbers in a White Sox uniform, both for games I attended and overall, were:

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Fitbit Week 21

Week21_FBDespite a disappointing start to the week, things picked up and I ended up with my most productive week since heading to San Diego last spring.  Sunday was Father’s Day, and despite a morning trip out for breakfast, a trip to US Cellular Field with Danny, and a post-game trip out for Father’s Day activities, I failed to make it to the 5500 step mark.  Things bounced back during the work week, as each day was over 6000 steps, in most cases well above.  The highlight of the week was Friday, despite horrific traffic that saw me spend well over 4 hours in the car to get home, with a stop at US Cellular Field for Grinder Bash.  I managed over 13,000 steps, my 14th best total ever recorded.  Saturday was Family Day at Wrigley Field, which helped boost the week’s total.

Total steps: 56,618

Daily average: 8088.3

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Book 15 (of 52) – The Picture Of Dorian Gray

The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar WIlde

The Picture of Dorian Gray – Oscar WIlde

Recently, I got into some deep book conversations with my friend Hayley where she questioned my taste in books due to the preponderance of baseball books.  To combat this, I decided to dive into what she had declared as her favorite book, The Picture of Dorian Gray by noted playwright Oscar Wilde.  I was able to find a free version in the Amazon Kindle store, so I decided to see what all the fuss was about.

The Picture of Dorian Gray tells the tale of a young English nobleman, who, after getting his portrait taken, makes a wish that he may stay forever young while the ravages of time and sin affect his visage in the painting.  After years of living a life of vanity and decadence, he finally decides to turn his life around and rid himself of the vile painting, when, in attempting to destroy the portrait, he reverses the wish and winds up killing himself, now bearing the weight and scars of the past.

While I can’t say I was a big fan of the book, I guess I’m glad that I read it.  Oscar Wilde is one of those names that shows up in trivia games and game shows, so it is good to have some first hand experience under my belt.  That said, I’m pretty sure my next outing will be something back in my comfort zone.

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Mix Tape Monday Revisited – Volume 14

Between 1989, my sophomore year of high school, and 1995, my fourth year of college, I put together 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. Three years ago, we looked back at all 20 volumes and which of my “favorite” songs I still listened to. Today, we revisit those mix tapes and see how things have changed in the last 3 years.

Volume 14 takes us into the early summer of 1994, following the end of my sophomore year of college.  The song selection continues to be  mostly alternative, with a little G-funk added for flavor.

Side A

Stone Temple Pilots – Big Empty

This entry from The Crow soundtrack picked up a paltry 2 additional listens and hasn’t been heard in well over 2 years.

2012 iTunes stats: 3 plays

2015 iTunes stats: 5 plays, most recently on 3/23/2013

Aerosmith – Crazy

A healthy 7 play increase for the final installment of the Alicia Silverstone video trilogy, now with extra Liv Tyler.

2012 iTunes stats: 11 plays

2015 iTunes stats: 18 plays, most recently on 12/18/2014

Soundgarden – Black Hole Sun

The big hit for Soundgarden more than doubled its number of plays over the past 3 years.

2012 iTunes stats: 2 plays

2015 iTunes stats: 5 plays, most recently on 8/29/2014

Green Day – Longview

The “debut” that pushed Green Day into the mainstream more than doubled its number of listens over the last 3 years.

2012 iTunes stats: 3 plays

2015 iTunes stats: 7 plays, most recently on 6/4/2015

Hole – Miss World

The introduction of Courtney Love to a mainstream audience picked up 5 additional listens over the past 3 years.

2012 iTunes stats: 9 plays

2015 iTunes stats: 14 plays, most recently on 12/15/2014

Pearl Jam – Dissident

The latest from Pearl Jam has not been heard once in over 3 years.

2012 iTunes stats: 8 plays

2015 iTunes stats: 8 plays, most recently on 3/19/2012

Sarah McLachlan – Possession

The first hit for Sarah McLachlan quadrupled its paltry total over the past 3 years.

2012 iTunes stats: 1 play

2015 iTunes stats: 4 plays, most recently on 11/20/2014

Side B

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