The 10,000 Step Club Revisited

Last spring, I took an initial look at the top 20 step days I’ve had since starting the GlobalFit program way back in July of 2011.  At the time, I had only surpassed the 10,000 step plateau 31 times.  In the 8 months since then, I have managed to raise that number to 45.  With the GlobalFit program officially wrapping up earlier this week, I thought it would be appropriate to take a new, and final, look at my updated top 20 step days over the past 3 1/2 years.

btn10K-41: 6/6/2013 – 24,988 steps

My best single day total came during my 2013 trip to Disney World.  The day’s excursion to both Epcot Center and the Magic Kingdom ended up with a total of approximately 12.5 miles.  And yes, it still bothers me that I didn’t get those 12 additional steps to reach 25,000.

2: 7/27/2013 – 20,592 steps

My second highest total came nearly 2 months after my highest, thanks to the BTN 5K and a, for lack of a better word, misunderstanding about where I should be picked up after the race.  These 2 days are the sum total of my days over 20,000 steps.

3: 6/8/2013 – 17,852 steps

My third highest output brings us back to Disney World, this time for a day split between Animal Kingdom in the morning and Hollywood Studios in the afternoon.

4: 9/23/2014 – 15,728 steps

A new addition since my original list, this total was accomplished thanks to the Sprint & Stride 5K race that was held at work last fall.

5: 9/9/2012 – 14,957 steps

We round out the top 5 with my highest total outside of the United States.  A Sunday in Belfast spent walking from our hotel, down to the Titanic museum, and then back again.

6: 6/7/2013 – 14,940 steps

Another day of 2013’s vacation to Disney World, this day started with a morning trip to the hotel pool, followed by an abbreviated day at the Magic Kingdom.

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Commuting Fun

A Tuesday night commute that took well over an hour and a half was spent, not with the iPhone on shuffle, but working my way through the Ws.

Weed Card Garfunkel and Oates All Over Your Face 9/16/2014 4:32 PM
Welcome Back (Kotter) John Sebastian The Best Of John Sebastian 9/16/2014 4:35 PM
Welcome To Paradise Green Day Dookie 9/16/2014 4:39 PM
Welcome To The Jungle Guns N’ Roses Appetite For Destruction 9/16/2014 4:44 PM
Were Not Gonna Take It Twisted Sister Stay Hungry 9/16/2014 4:49 PM
Werewolves Of London Warren Zevon Excitable Boy 9/16/2014 4:52 PM
What A Wonderful World Joey Ramone Music From Gilmore Girls 9/16/2014 4:55 PM
What A Wonderful World Louis Armstrong Louis Armstrong’s All-Time Greatest Hits 9/16/2014 4:57 PM
What About Your Friends TLC Ooooooohhh…On The TLC Tip 9/16/2014 5:02 PM
What Do I Have To Do? Stabbing Westward Wither Blister Burn & Peel 9/16/2014 5:05 PM
What Happened To You? The Offspring Smash 9/16/2014 5:08 PM
What I Am Continue reading →

GF4 – Week 9

Y4Week9The week got off to a horrid start, thanks to the Labor Day holiday and my allergies, which kept me inside all day and limited me to under 1000 steps.  The rest of the week rebounded fairly well, with every day surpassing the 5000 step mark, if just barely.  Saturday helped to pick up the slack for the rest of the week, thanks to a trip in to the city for shenanigans and a Garfunkel and Oates show at the House of Blues.  Sunday rounded out the week with my final visit to Wrigley Field for the year.

Total steps: 46,988

Daily average: 6712.6

Wasting The Summer Away

For reasons any right-thinking person could not possibly understand, traffic this summer has been particularly brutal.  No matter what time I leave work, it will take at least 2 hours to get home.  One example of this was this past Thursday, when I took off around 3:40 and pulled into my garage just after 5:46.  Because of this, I’ve been able to listen to a lot of music.  Here is Thursday’s playlist, which kept from killing people in the cars around me.

Cult Of Personality Living Colour Monsters Of Rock [Disc 2 Of 2] 6/26/2014 3:46
Dreams The Cranberries Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can’t We? 6/26/2014 3:51
Only You Garfunkel and Oates Music Songs 6/26/2014 3:53
I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles) The Proclaimers Living In The 90’s (Disc 2) 6/26/2014 3:56
I Won’t Forget You Poison Poison’s Greatest Hits 1986-1996 6/26/2014 4:00
Sk8er Boi Avril Lavigne Let Go 6/26/2014 4:03
Jane Says Jane’s Addiction Nothing’s Shocking 6/26/2014 4:08
The Tra La La Song (One Banana, Two Banana) Banana Splits Here Come The Banana Splits 6/26/2014 4:10
I Saw Red Warrant Cherry Pie 6/26/2014 4:14
What The World Needs Now Is Love Jackie De Shannon Forrest Gump (Disc 1) 6/26/2014 4:17
Smells Like Teen Spirit Continue reading →

Concert Flashback: Garfunkel & Oates

13gando

As I detailed somewhat last October, Garfunkel and Oates were coming to town.  I had made plans to attend with two friends from work, but they dragged their feet on getting back to me and all of the seated tickets were sold out.  When they found out we would have to *gasp* stand for the show, they bailed, leaving me with 2 extra tickets.  Seeing as it was the start of my birthday weekend, I decided to head down to the Abbey Pub without them and enjoy myslef as much as I could.  And enjoy myself I did.

20131201-205308.jpg The show started with a comic whose name escapes me at this point.  Once he finished his set, the girls came out and did their thing, mixing banter between themselves with their comedic songs.  In addition to the “hits” from their existing albums, they performed some of their newer songs, including Bernadette’s Song, which they wrote and had debuted on The Big Bang Theory the night before, and God’s Loophole, an exciting ditty about anal sex.

Once the show finished, both Riki Lindhome and Kate Micucci came out to sign autographs and take pictures.  I got their autograph on one of my three tickets for the night and got my picture taken with both of them, which has been my Facebook profile picture ever since.  If they were to ever come back to town, I would definately go see them again.  Meanwhile, I’ll look forward to their IFC show, which should be coming out sometime this year.

iTunes Top 100 Artists: #11-20

itunes_image

My latest desktop computer arrived in late 2007, at which point I transitioned all of my music off of my laptop. 2 iPods, 2 iPhones, and an iPad later, that computer is still my main repository of music, with iTunes updating its stats every time I listen to something.

Having already gone through cassette tapes and CDs, and digital music, it’s time to roll everything up with the Top 100 artists that I’ve listened to as of 8/21/2013, according to iTunes. Today we look at the the the next batch, numbers 11-20, which includes a nice mix of musical genres and comedy.

#11: Garfunkel and Oates

iTunes stats: 156 plays

31 songs have put the two funny girls on the list in less than a year.  They will likely be higher the next time I do this, as I’ve listened to them a lot since their concert 2 1/2 weeks ago.

#12: David Cross

iTunes stats: 153 plays

39 tracks from 3 albums puts the funny man on the list.

#13: Poison

iTunes stats: 144 plays

The quintessential glam metal band used 28 songs to get to this total.

#14: Eminem

iTunes stats: 136 plays

Only 16 tunes from the white rapper gets him to this mark.

#15: Def Leppard

iTunes stats: 133 plays

35 songs for the troubled band from Sheffield give them such a high total.

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The $90 Comedy Show

GandO

The musical comedians (or comedic musicians) known as Garfunkel and Oates came to town tonight and I had made plans to attend with a few friends.  However, the day after I bought the tickets, these so-called friends changed their mind, deciding against going because, well, there really wasn’t any reason.  At least not one that made sense.  So, for the past week or so, I’ve been alternately trying to find someone else to use the extra tickets and trying to control my anger.

Tonight, armed with three tickets, I headed down to Abbey Pub solo to see the show, figuring that I had spent $90 either way, so I might as well enjoy myself.  And enjoy myself I did.  Kate Micucci and Riki Lindhome put on a great show, treating the crowd to some of their songs, some witty banter, and an unplanned cover version of the song they wrote for last night’s episode of The Big Bang Theory.  After the show, the duo came out and signed autographs and took pictures with the appreciative crowd.  For one night, at least, I have happy feelings about the whole episode.

Goodbye, iPhone 4S – Music Edition

A little more than a week ago, I upgraded my phone from the iPhone 4S to the newly released iPhone 5S.  The biggest difference, aside from a slightly bigger screen, is the jump from 3G (or 4G, if you believe AT&T’s hype) to LTE.  I had the 4S for a little under 2 years, and in that time, we traveled the world together (well, at least going back to the UK) and have listened to a lot of podcasts and music. Here is every song (all 2079 of them) I’ve listened to on the phone, with some (ok, very little) bonus commentary.  Godspeed.

 

Let’s Go-Go-Go White Sox Captain Stubby and the Buccaneers 33
He’s a Pirate Klaus Badelt Pirates of the Caribbean (Soundtrack from the Motion Picture) 32
Take Me Out To The Ballgame Harry Caray 31
Thunderstruck AC/DC The Razors Edge 31
Gordon Beckham Intro 29
Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye Steam Billboard’s Top Rock ‘n’ Roll Hits: 1969 29
Don’t Stop Believin’ Journey Journey’s Greatest Hits 27
sox05_montage 27
We Are The Champions Queen Queen: Greatest Hits I & II 27
Your Love The Outfield Play Deep 27
2008 White Sox Central Division Champs Montage Chris Tannehill WSCR 670 The Score 25
Take Me Out To The Ballgame Nancy Faust 25
Harvester Of Sorrow Metallica …And Justice For All 20

You would hope that these numbers would have been higher, but this past season’s miserable performance by the White Sox has put the songs on their playlist out of mind more often than not.

Cannonball The Breeders The First 1000 Years- Rock 19
Man Or Muppet Jason Segel The Muppets 15
It’s Time For Our Song Miss Piggy The Muppets 14
Get Out There And Help Those Guys Jason Segel The Muppets 13
Main Title LOST Soundtrack LOST Soundtrack 13
Are You A Man Or A Muppet? Amy Adams The Muppets 12
How Charming, A Finale Uncle Deadly The Muppets 12
I’m On A Boat (ft. T-Pain) The Lonely Island Incredibad 12
Down At The Ole Barbershop Kermit The Muppets 11
Me and Drugs David Cross Bigger and Blackerer 11
The Antichrist Howard Stern Private Parts: The Album 11
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Thursday Night Commute

Back to work after a 5 day weekend.

Theme From Shaft Isaac Hayes Shaft 9/5/2013 4:21 PM
Hold On Jamie Walters Poplife (Disc 2) 9/5/2013 4:26 PM
Heaven Is A Place On Earth Belinda Carlisle Billboard Top Hits: 1987 9/5/2013 4:30 PM
I Dream of Jeannie Buddy Kaye Television’s Greatest Hits, Vol. 1 9/5/2013 4:32 PM
Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego? Tee Vee Toons TV’s Hits Vol. 7: Cable Ready 9/5/2013 4:34 PM
F**k You Garfunkel and Oates Music Songs 9/5/2013 4:36 PM
Free As A Bird The Beatles Anthology 1 [Disc 1] 9/5/2013 4:40 PM
Every Day Is Halloween Ministry Early Trax 9/5/2013 4:47 PM
Spirit In The Sky Norman Greenbaum Billboard Top Rock & Roll Hits: 1970 9/5/2013 4:51 PM
My Wife’s Crazy! David Cross Shut Up, You Fucking Baby! 9/5/2013 4:55 PM
Angel Main Theme Darling Violetta Angel: Live Fast, Die Never 9/5/2013 4:57 PM
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