Tag / Halloween

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Fitbit XI – Week 41

I extended my 30,000-step week streak to 25 weeks, thanks to my annual birthday trip to Boston and my highest step total since July.  Things got off to a good start on Sunday, finishing with 4900 steps.  A night out for a birthday dinner led to 5700 steps on Monday.  Confusion at the airport for my flight to Boston left me with 4700 steps on Tuesday.  I managed to surpass my daily step goal for the first time since early August on Wednesday, wrapping up the day with 7800 steps.  My return flight home on Thursday led to 5800 steps.  A return to work on Friday, along with trick or treat duties afterwards, left me with 4800 steps.  A lazy Saturday wrapped up the week with 4400 steps.

Total steps: 38,206

Daily average: 5458

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iTunes Top 200: #31 – 38

Music.  It is a powerful thing that brings people together, creates memories, and evokes emotions.  It is the universal language that speaks to the soul.  It forms the soundtrack of our lives.

It has now been five years since we last counted down the Top 200 songs in my iTunes library, featuring he songs I have listened to the most since 2007.  It is time to do so again, seeing which older songs still resonate and if any newer ones have joined the fray.  So, without further ado, here are my most listened to songs, based on number of plays as of January 1, 2025.

We continue this week with the two remaining songs tied for 89th place with 42 plays and begin the first batch of tunes with 43 plays apiece, good enough for 77th place since my stats began in late 2007.

#38: 10,000 Maniacs – These Are Days
iTunes stats: 52 plays, most recently on 8/12/2024
Previous ranking: #51

The lead single from the band’s fifth studio album, it topped Billboard’s Modern Rock Tracks chart in November of 1992.

#38: Metallica – Wherever I May Roam
iTunes stats: 52 plays, most recently on 2/26/2024
Previous ranking: #47

Used by former White Sox closer David Robertson as his entry music during his stint with the club, which got it added to some editions of my White Sox victory playlist.

#38: Foo Fighters – All My Life
iTunes stats: 52 plays, most recently on 8/1/2024
Previous ranking: #28

Only three new plays for this live version of the song from the Live in Hyde Park bootleg.

#34: Taylor Swift – Bad Blood
iTunes stats: 53 plays, most recently on 2/12/2024
Previous ranking: #60

Swift’s fourth #1 single on the Billboard Hot 100, it was one of many walkup songs used by Anthony Rizzo during the 2016 season, earning it a place on my Cubs victory playlist.

#34: Katy Perry – I Kissed a Girl
iTunes stats: 53 plays, most recently on 8/17/2024
Previous ranking: #33

Perry’s debut single, it was ranked as the 66th top song for the decade of the 2000s by Billboard magazine.

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Book 49 (of 52) – The Outsider

The Outsider – Stephen King

When a young boy is brutally murdered, the police and the district attorney think they have an impeachable case, with DNA and fingerprint evidence matching their chief suspect.  After they arrest him, though, they find out he has an iron-clad alibi, allowing bits of doubt to creep in.  When he is killed on the way to his arraignment, more mysterious happenings start to occur, leading a group of interested parties to hire an investigator who has previous experience with the strange and unexplainable.  When the natural world does not have an explanation for what is happening, will a police officer be able to expand his thinking to include the supernatural as a possibility?  And can they stop the supernatural creature before it attacks again?

Stephen King’s The Outsider, released in 2018, first made my acquaintance in 2020, when the adaptation aired on HBO.  I watched the first episode and meant to go back for the rest, but never did.  At some point, I picked up a copy of the eBook on the Kindle app and, being the Halloween season, this seemed like a good time to dive in.  It took a while for King to get to the “Stephen King” part of the tale, but once it did, it was an enjoyable ride.  Some of the characters from this book appear in other King works, so I feel like I now have a nice springboard back into his more recent output.

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You Ought To Be In (15) Pictures

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.  Given those guidelines, it is time once again to look at the now 107 actors that have starred in at least 10 films that I have seen, as of July 1.

We continue today with the twelve actors that have starred in exactly 15 movies that I have seen, an increase of three from 3 years ago.

Amy Adams

Amy Adams made her first appearance on my screen in 2001, when I watched the repurposed television pilot that became Cruel Intentions 2.  She returned in 2008, starting a run of eight films in four years.  After a five-year absence, she returned in 2022 with the previous year’s The Woman In The Window.

Jamie Lee Curtis

My first experience with the former teenage scream queen was likely one of the first two Halloween films, the franchise that is responsible for nearly 47% of the films on this list.  After a seven-year lull, she returned with the latest reboot/continuation of the Halloween franchise, culminating in 2022’s Halloween Ends.

Will Ferrell

The SNL alum first streaked on to the list of film actors I’ve seen in 2003 with Old School.  Since then, his appearances have been pretty consistent, with 2012-2013 being the longest streak of him not appearing on my screen.  The most recent film of his I’ve seen was 2013’s Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues, which I finally saw last year.

Anne Hathaway

Like most of America, I first saw Anne Hathaway on the silver screen back in 2003 in The Princess Diaries.  In the intervening years, she had been a steadfast presence on my movie (or television) screen, including three films in 2005 and four in 2009.  Things have slowed a bit this decade, with her latest appearance being 2019’s The Hustle, which I saw in 2020.

Angelina Jolie

Her last appearance on my screen is still in 2012, when I saw her in Changeling.

Steve Martin

The last starring role of his that I saw remains 2005’s Shopgirl, which I saw in 2009.

Julia Stiles Continue reading →

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FB8 – Week 41

A weekend trip to Boston helped pick up what had been a down week to that point, helping me finish above 30,000 steps for the third week in a row.  Things got off to a decent enough start on Sunday, as I finished with 4000 steps.  Despite answering the doorbell for the handful of trick or treaters on Monday, I ended Halloween with just over 3800 steps.  A trip to the office on Tuesday left me just 17 steps away from 4600.  Wednesday turned into the week’s low point, finishing with only 1900 steps.  Thursday bounced back a little, going up to 2800 steps.  An afternoon flight on Friday put me up above 6900 steps.  A trip to the Museum of Science and birthday dinner with Angelina on Saturday pushed me up over 8900 steps, my highest total since the end of September.

Total steps: 33,100

Daily average: 4728.6

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Book 46 (of 52) – Daphne

Daphne – Josh Malerman

The town of Samhattan has a secret, one that hides in the back recesses of townspeople’s brains.  When that secret comes out, the members of the local high school’s girls’ basketball team start paying the price.  While the detective assigned to the case, not locally born and raised, tries to get to the bottom of both the secret before there is no one left from the team, the remaining girls try to come to grips with what is after them and how they alone can stop it.

Just in time for Halloween, Daphne was recommended to me by some article as a recent horror entry that was a worthy read this time of year.  Unfortunately, I don’t quite agree.  Apparently, author Josh Malerman originally wrote this as a novella and was convinced to build it out to novel length.  That, I think, did some harm, as the tale did feel repetitive in parts.  On the other hand, they mystery of who was responsible for the killings was kind of ambiguous, bouncing back and forth between a human perpetrator and the supernatural being known as Daphne.  Anyway, this was my first, and probably going to end up being my only, exposure to Malerman’s work.

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FB8 – Week 39

After two down weeks, I managed to put together a fairly consistent week that put me back up above 30,000 steps.  Things got off to a good start on Sunday, as I finished with 6100 steps after a trip to the grocery store and to find some new pants.  Monday fell off a bit but was still a (what passes as) respectable 4700 steps.  Tuesday was just a little lower, dropping down to 4300 steps.  Wednesday jumped back up a bit, finishing with 4900 steps.  Things started to drop again on Thursday, going down to 4600 steps.  Friday was the low point of the week and still managed to end 30 steps shy of 4100.  A trip out to see some Stranger Things Halloween decorations on Saturday helped push me over 4400 steps.

Total steps: 33,233

Daily average: 4747.6

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Book 37 (of 52) – The Final Girl Support Group

The Final Girl Support Group – Grady Hendrix

Imagine, if you will, a world where slasher films like Halloween, Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Scream were not works of fiction, but instead were based on real life events and the final girls, the real life Laurie Strodes and Sydney Prescotts, all travelled to Los Angeles for a monthly group therapy session?  That is the basic premise of The Final Girl Support Group, that latest entry from Grady Hendrix.  When someone starts attacking the remaining Final Girls, all evidence points to it being one of their own, but the truth is even more insidious.

Through the first 2/3’s of this book, I was completely on board.  But, I feel like things went a little off the rails in that last third.  You know going in to a book like this that there is going to a twist or two, but there really wasn’t so much twists as characters jumping back and forth from suspects like crazy.  Still made for an enjoyable read, but I feel like it missed the landing just a little bit.

 

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Fitbit 6: Week 40

Week 33 of working from home due to the corona virus sees a big uptake, as I continue to struggle meeting my goals while being home all the time.  The week got off to a decent start on Sunday, finishing just over 4400 steps.  Monday was the highlight of the week, surpassing my daily goal with just over 7500 steps.  Tuesday dropped back down to 4900 steps, as I celebrated my birthday with a surprise visit from Val and Daryl.  Wednesday saw a slight increase back up to nearly 5200 steps.  Thursday was back down to 4300 steps.  Friday fell back down again to 3400 steps.  Saturday, I barely finished above 2000 steps as I tried to avoid the trick or treaters on Halloween.

Total steps: 31,902

Daily average: 4557.4