Today marks the end of Danny’s 22nd revolution around the sun. To celebrate, we head back to last September, when he performed at an early morning Purdue volleyball match.
Tag / Boiler Up!
Fitbit IX – Week 42
After taking October off, this week brought college football back to my routine, which helped keep me on the right side of the 30,000-step plateau. The week got off to a decent start on Sunday, finishing just 32 steps away from 4400 thanks in part to last week’s Saturday night extending into the early hours of Sunday. Things were even better on Monday, coming 29 steps short of 4600. A slight decrease on Tuesday pushed me back down to 4300 steps. Despite a trip up north for a work lunch, Wednesday was the low point of the week, needing an additional 5 steps just to get to 3100. Another work outing on Thursday, to Topgolf in Schaumburg, pushed my back up to 4200 steps. Friday was a little better, going up to 4400 steps. A trip down to West Lafayette on Saturday to see Danny and Purdue battling Minnesota led to the week’s best day, finishing with 7800 steps.
Total steps: 32,871
Daily average: 4695.9
College Basketball Tipoff
The men’s Purdue Boilermakers kicked off the 2023-2024 season last night, the 126th in school history, so let’s take a look at the results of the now 20 men’s college basketball games I have attended in my lifetime. You’d think it would be more, since I was a big fan and we had a great team while I was in school, but for some reason I only made it to two games while enrolled in college. The other 18 have been post-graduation, with the latest three coming last season thanks to a trip to Bloomington and the Big Ten Tournament being at the United Center. Anyway, without further ado, here are the standings for those 20 games.
All-Time Team Records – Men
| Team | Won | Loss | Winning Pctg |
|---|---|---|---|
| Virginia Commonwealth Rams | 1 | 0 | 1.000 |
| North Texas Mean Green | 1 | 0 | 1.000 |
| Indiana Hoosiers | 1 | 0 | 1.000 |
| Butler Bulldogs | 1 | 0 | 1.000 |
| Purdue Boilermakers | 12 | 7 | 0.631578947368421 |
| Northwestern Wildcats | 2 | 3 | 0.400 |
| Illinois Fighting Illini | 2 | 3 | 0.400 |
| Vermont Catamounts | 0 | 1 | 0.000 |
| Penn State Nittany Lions | 0 | 1 | 0.000 |
| Ohio State Buckeyes | 0 | 1 | 0.000 |
| Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders | 0 | 1 | 0.000 |
| Long Beach State 49ers | 0 | 1 | 0.000 |
| Iowa State Cyclones | 0 | 1 | 0.000 |
| Houston Cougars | 0 | 1 | 0.000 |
It’s Hard To Hold A Candle
We are entering the home stretch of 2023, and, to prepare for Danny’s upcoming birthday, we have various shots of him from the 2022 Purdue football season. From left to right, he’s outside the co-rec heading to Slayter Hill for the band’s pre-game performance, finishing lunch following the pre-game practice, and standing on the sidelines of Ross-Ade waiting to take the field.
Fitbit IX – Week 38
Another week, unexpectedly without football, leaves me below 30,000 steps for the second week in a row. The week got off to a slow start on Sunday, finishing just over 2700 steps. Things picked up a bit on Monday, jumping up to 4300 steps. Tuesday was nearly the same, coming in just 45 steps behind Monday’s total. Wednesday saw a bigger drop, going down to 3800 steps. Thursday jumped back up again, falling 27 steps shy of 4400. A case of Covid in the house helped put me up over 4600 steps on Friday as I tracked down food and medicines while trying to keep myself healthy. Sadly, I missed the trip to the Purdue game on Saturday just in case, which caused me to come 33 steps away from 3300.
Total steps: 27,516
Daily average: 3930.9
Fitbit IX – Week 36
Another successful week as we wrapped up the 2023 baseball campaign. The week got off to a slow start, needing an additional 26 steps to to get to 3900. Monday saw a slight improvement, pushing just over 3900 steps. A slightly larger push got me over 4200 steps on Tuesday. An afternoon in the Scout Seats at Guaranteed Rate Field on Wednesday left me 23 steps away from 6200. Thursday was another afternoon spent at the ballpark, but this time I needed 34 more steps to get to 5000. A night game on Friday pushed me back up again, finishing 35 steps shy of 6200. Another Purdue home game on Saturday led to my highest total of the week, garnering 8000 steps despite the four hours spent driving there and back.
Total steps: 37,406
Daily average: 5343.7
Fitbit IX – Week 35
A successful week, garnering my highest step total since my trip to Seattle back in June. Despite a trip out to Anderson’s Bookshop to meet Millie Bobby Brown, Sunday ended up a disappointment, needing 2 additional steps just to get to 2600. Monday saw a nice improvement, coming 27 steps shy of 5400 thanks in part to a lunch trip to the mall. A post-work trip to Wrigley Field, my final visit of the regular season, pushed me up over 8300 steps on Tuesday. Wednesday fell back down to a now-normal 4000 steps. Thursday also came in just over 4000 steps, despite a 2-hour drive to Lafayette after work. Friday turned into my second 10,000 step day of the year, finishing just 15 steps shy of 11,700 thanks to a remote working day followed by Purdue football losing once again to Wisconsin. A morning walk about campus followed by breakfast with Danny before heading home led to 4200 steps on Saturday.
Total steps: 40,262
Daily average: 5751.7
Fitbit IX – Week 34
A pretty good week, as I managed to surpass my daily goal twice while putting up my second-highest weekly total of the year. A trip to Wrigley Field with old friends on Sunday got the week off to a great start, coming 10 steps away from 7600 steps. Predictably, Monday’s total fell off just a little bit, dropping to 3500 steps. Tuesday improved on that total, jumping up to 3600 steps. A trip to the office on Wednesday pushed me up over 4600 steps. Thursday went down a little, finishing with 4100 steps. Friday saw a nice increase, going up to 4400 steps. My first Purdue football game of the season led to a big surge on Saturday, ending the day 24 steps shy of 7800.
Total steps: 35,765
Daily average: 5109.3
2023 College Football Kickoff
My alma mater, the Purdue Boilermakers, kick off their 2023 gridiron campaign today, starting a new era with new coach Ryan Walters hoping to continue the momentum that led the team to the Big Ten Championship game last December. With Danny entering his final year in the marching band and the family having season tickets for the first time, I’m sure to make it back to campus for more than my usual allotment of games this year after tying my career high with three games last year. With that, it’s time to take a look at the results of the now 27 college football games I have attended since the 1993 season, covering six different stadiums in a whopping three states, including one bowl game.
All-Time Team Records
| Expr1000 | Won | Loss | Winning Pctg |
|---|---|---|---|
| Penn State Nittany Lions | 2 | 0 | 1.000 |
| Ohio State Buckeyes | 1 | 0 | 1.000 |
| Louisiana State Tigers | 1 | 0 | 1.000 |
| Notre Dame Fighting Irish | 4 | 1 | 0.800 |
| Purdue Boilermakers | 16 | 9 | 0.640 |
| Northern Illinois Huskies | 1 | 1 | 0.500 |
| Illinois Fighting Illini | 2 | 6 | 0.250 |
| Western Michigan Broncos | 0 | 1 | 0.000 |
| Northwestern Wildcats | 0 | 3 | 0.000 |
| North Carolina State Wolfpack | 0 | 1 | 0.000 |
| Michigan State Spartans | 0 | 1 | 0.000 |
| Michigan Wolverines | 0 | 1 | 0.000 |
| Indiana Hoosiers | 0 | 2 | 0.000 |
| Florida Atlantic Owls | 0 | 1 | 0.000 |
You Ought To Be In (16) 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 five actors that have starred in exactly 16 movies that I have seen, an increase of three from 3 years ago.
Drew Barrymore
One of the most prolific actors on my radar in the 1990s and 2000s, she has disappeared since, with the most recent of her films that I’ve seen, Music And Lyrics, coming in 2008.
Cameron Diaz
I first encountered Cameron Diaz back in 1996, when I saw her in a little indie film called The Last Supper. She managed to get two films on my list in four different years, most recently in 2010. She has mostly retired from acting, which explains why 2010’s Knight and Day, which I saw in 2019, remains the last film of hers I’ve seen.
Brad Pitt
In 1994, I saw a little film called Kalifornia, which introduced me to Brad Pitt. While he would become a mega-star over the next few years, I was a bit of a late comer to his films. Other than watching A River Runs Through It in 1997 during the Sports in Literature class I took during my last semester of college, it was 2000 before I saw another Pitt film. Making up for lost time, I plowed through three films in 2000. He had a four-year streak between in 2010 and 2013, then entered a dry spell that ended in 2020, when he reappeared with two films. His most recent appearance was in 2022, thanks to that year’s Bullet Train.
Natalie Portman
The first starring roles of Natalie Portman’s that I saw were in 2001, when I watched a double feature of Where The Heart Is and Anywhere But Here. Her appearances in the Star Wars prequel trilogy and the Thor franchise have accounted for over 31% of her overall total. 2011 was a big Portman year for me, as I saw a whopping four of her films. My last experience with her work came in 2022, when she returned to the MCU with Thor: Love and Thunder.
Will Smith
Will Smith’s transition from rapper to TV star to movie star began with 1995’s Bad Boys. The following two year, he cemented himself as a huge star with the double feature of Independence Day and Men In Black. The Bad Boys and Men In Black franchises have made up over 37% of his total movies that I’ve seen. My most recent exposure to his work came in 2020, when I saw both 2019’s Gemini Man and 2020’s Bad Boys For Life.