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2024 All Star Break Standings

For just the second time, the Midsummer Classic lands in Arlington, Texas.  As the stars of the baseball world gather at Globe Life Field for tonight’s showdown, it’s time to take a look at the team records for the 18 games, featuring 60% of the teams in the league, that I attended in the first half of the baseball season, a disappointing one on both sides of town.

2024 Team Records

Team Name Won Loss Winning Pctg
Detroit Tigers 1 0 1.000
Baltimore Orioles 1 0 1.000
Cincinnati Reds 1 0 1.000
Cleveland Guardians 1 0 1.000
Toronto Blue Jays 1 0 1.000
Houston Astros 1 0 1.000
Los Angeles Dodgers 1 0 1.000
Pittsburgh Pirates 1 0 1.000
San Diego Padres 1 0 1.000
Chicago Cubs 2 1 0.667
Boston Red Sox 2 1 0.667
Kansas City Royals 1 1 0.500
Chicago White Sox 4 12 0.250
Atlanta Braves 0 1 0.000
Tampa Bay Rays 0 1 0.000
Colorado Rockies 0 1 0.000
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Fifty Years Of Music – 1999

Fifty years ago, I made my first appeared on the Earth.  In celebration, we are going to take a look at the year-end Billboard Hot 100 singles chart for each year of my life and see what songs resonated with me at the time and if they continue to do so to this day.

We continue our look back at the music of my lifetime with 1999, the year I turned 25 and Angelina was born.  At 33 songs, we see a slight rebound in the Hot 100 that remain familiar to me today for the first time, with 17 of them appearing in my collection in one way or another.

#94: Goo Goo Dolls – Iris
iTunes stats: 19 plays

Featured on the soundtrack to City of Angels, the track debuted, and peaked, at #9 in December of 1998 following the change to allow songs with no commercial single release to chart.

#89: Jay-Z – Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem)
iTunes stats: 35 plays

Featuring samples and the chorus from the Annie song, it reached #15.

#78: Len – Steal My Sunshine
iTunes stats: 18 plays

The group’s only charting single in the US, it went to #9

#77: Shania Twain – Man, I Feel Like a Woman
iTunes stats: 12 plays

The Grammy winner for Best Female Country Vocal Performance in 2000, it topped out at #4 on the Hot Country Singles chart and #23 on the Hot 100.

#70: Sarah McLachlan – I Will Remember You
iTunes stats: 0 plays

Originally released in 1995, this live version peaked at #14 and earned McLachlan her second Grammy for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.

#57: Shania Twain – From This Moment On
iTunes stats: N/A

The song reached #4 on the Hot 100, #1 on the Adult Contemporary chart, and #6 on the Hot Country Songs chart.

#54: Jewel – Hands
iTunes stats: 20 plays

The lead single from the singer’s sophomore effort, it went to #6.

#53: Will Smith – Miami
iTunes stats: 1 play

Topping out at #17, the song garnered Smith a VMA for Best Male Video.

#51: Tal Bachman – She’s So High
iTunes stats: 28 plays

The debut single from the Canadian singer-songwriter peaked at #14.

Continue reading →

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Beverly Hills, 9021Oh No

After a years long battle with cancer, Shannen Doherty, the former Beverly Hills 90210 and Charmed star, passed away yesterday at the age of 53.  Doherty was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015 and suffered a recurrence in 2019, which had spread to her brain and her bones.

Doherty rose to fame starring as Brenda Walsh on the first four seasons of Beverly Hills 90210.  She would then later star as Prue Halliwell, the oldest sister on Charmed.  She left that gig after the third season.  On the big screen, she was known for her supporting roles in Heathers and Mallrats.

Doherty is now the second cast member from the 90s teen soap to prematurely shuttle off this mortal coil.  Luke Perry, who played Doherty’s dangerous boyfriend Dylan McKay, suffered a massive stroke in 2019, dying a week later after being taken off life support.  He was 52.

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Refreshing The Wardrobe

The Purdue football team unveiled new uniforms this morning for the first time since 2016.  The initial release showed just two each of helmets, jerseys, and pants.  The helmets, one gold and one black, each featuring the motion P logo on the sides and a triple stripe down the middle, with the gold helmet featuring a black/white/black stripe pattern and the black helmet going gold/white/gold.

The jerseys come in black and white, and feature block numbers outlined in gold, with the Purdue wordmark across the chest.  Sleeve stripes will be gold/white/gold on the black jerseys and black/gold/black on the white.  The pants, which come in gold and white, have a strip down the outside of each leg, matching the pattern from the same-colored helmets.

The currently released setup gives the team seven different combinations to choose from.  I would expect there will eventually be a gold jersey and black pant option.  Maybe even a white helmet, though I would personally hope not.

The new look will make its on-field debut on August 31st against Indiana State.

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Book 28 (of 52) – The Stillwater Girls

The Stillwater Girls – Minka Kent

Two girls, left alone in their cabin in the woods when their mother went out months earlier to get medical help for their younger sister, find their way out of the forest when a strange man shows up at their cabin.  They wind up on the doorstep of a local woman, who thinks her husband is cheating on her.  When she takes them in, her life turns upside down, but not necessarily in the way she feared.

The Stillwater Girls, by Minka Kent, is an interesting tale with one whopper of a twist at the end, one that is, frankly, unbelievable.  Still, prior to that odd turn of events, this was another enjoyable effort from Kent.  I may continue to keep my eyes open for more of her work in the future.

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FB10: Week 24

The holiday week saw me slip off a bit from the 30,000-step plateau.  The week got off to a slow-ish start on Sunday, as I finished 30 steps away from 4200.  Monday saw a slight improvement, coming in just 33 steps shy of 4700.  Tuesday fell back down again, finishing with 4100 steps.   A trip to Palermo’s for dinner to kick off the long holiday weekend on Wednesday came just 7 steps away from 4600.  The Independence Day holiday saw a steep decline, as I rested and would need another 27 steps just to get to 2500.  An improvement on Friday pushed me back up to 3900 steps.  4200 steps ended the week on Saturday.

Total steps: 28,157

Daily average: 4022.4

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Fifty Years Of Music – 1998

Fifty years ago, I made my first appeared on the Earth.  In celebration, we are going to take a look at the year-end Billboard Hot 100 singles chart for each year of my life and see what songs resonated with me at the time and if they continue to do so to this day.

We continue our look back at the music of my lifetime with 1998, the year I turned 24.  The chart formula for the Hot 100 changed again in December, allowing songs to chart based on airplay alone if there was no commercial single released.  Thanks to my newly acquired hour plus commute, you’d think I’d have picked up more of the music of the day, but the numbers keep going down.  A mere 21 songs remain familiar to me today, with just twelve of them appearing in my collection in one way or another.

#87: Jewel – You Were Meant for Me
iTunes stats: 37 plays

Jewel hits the year-end chart for the second straight year thanks to a total of 65 weeks in the Hot 100.

#81: Spice Girls – Spice Up Your Life
iTunes stats: 9 plays

The lead single from the group’s sophomore album, it peaked at #18 on the Hot 100 in just its fourth week on the chart.

#79: The Verve – Bittersweet Symphony
iTunes stats: N/A

Considered one of the defining songs of the Britpop era, it reached #12.

#74: Edwin McCain – I’ll Be
iTunes stats: 16 plays

McCain’s second charting single, it went to #5, becoming his first and only top ten hit.

#58: Lisa Loeb – I Do
iTunes stats: 16 plays

Peaking at #17, it became Loeb’s second-highest charting single, following her debut single.

#57: Third Eye Blind – Semi-Charmed Life
iTunes stats: 18 plays

The highest charting single about a crystal meth addiction, it reached #4 and spent a total of 43 weeks on the chart.

#51: Barenaked Ladies – One Week
iTunes stats: 17 plays

True to its name, it spent a single week atop the Hot 100 in October.

Continue reading →

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Book 27 (of 52) – In Big Trouble

In Big Trouble – Laura Lippman

Tess Monaghan heads to Texas to find her ex-boyfriend Crow, who has stopped calling his parents.  She quickly finds out that the job is harden than she expected, as she stumbles across two dead bodies and finds herself in the middle of a decade’s old investigation, one that looks to put Crow away for years.  Can she find Crow and prove his innocence before the deadline of the big All Souls festival?

In Big Trouble, the fourth entry in Laura Lippman’s Tess Monaghan series, moves the action out of Baltimore and heads to Texas, specifically Austin and San Antonio.  Being out of her element sets Tess on edge, which knocks her down a peg or two as she becomes a successful private investigator.  I assume this is a one-time thing, as Tess and Crow were heading back to the East Coast at the end of the book, but I’m sure I’ll find out soon enough.

 

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Book 26 (of 52) – One Of The Good Guys

One of the Good Guys – Araminta Hall

After his marriage fell apart, Cole moved to the countryside to try and rebuild his life and figure out what went wrong.  He supported his wife, gave her everything she wanted or needed, and he truly doesn’t understand why she paints him as the bad guy.  When he meets Lennie, the two appear to have an easy connection.  All is not as it seems, however.  Is Cole truly the good guy that he envisions himself to be?  Or does he use the trappings of being a good guy to coerce and force women to give in to his every whim and desire?

Araminta Hall’s latest, One of the Good Guys, takes a look at gender, power, and fear, and how, despite most men claiming to be good, most women are still afraid to walk home alone in the dark.  This does seem to be something of a recurring theme in Hall’s work, as she claimed the last novel of hers I read stemmed from “the continued injustices perpetuated against woman in our so-called civil society.”  One of the first books published under Gillian Flynn’s new imprint, it was an interesting read, although you could see the turn against Cole coming from a mile away.  But maybe that was part of the point.  These guys hide in plain sight and don’t exactly survive the smell test once you scratch beyond the surface.

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FB10: Week 23

A week of going into an office helped push me back over the 30,000-step plateau.  The week got off to a slow-ish start on Sunday, as I finished 25 steps away from 3700.  Travelling to work, plus a nighttime baseball game, turned Monday into the week’s highpoint, pushing me up over 6600 steps.  Tuesday fell back down again without the game, needing an additional 11 steps to reach 4000   A dinner trip after yet another day in the office on Wednesday saw my total jump back up over 5000 steps.  A final day of on-site work on Thursday left me both exhausted and 24 steps shy of 4500.  Being able to stay home and rest on Friday led to a light day, with just 3300 steps.  Another trip to the south side on Saturday left me just 34 steps shy of 5300.

Total steps: 32,391

Daily average: 4627.3