Biggs' Zone

A Geek's Cogitations, Conjectures and other Cortical Experiences

Category: General Cogitation Page 11 of 40

TBT: The Day I Met Dierks

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On February 8, 2018

In General Cogitation, Reminiscence, TBT

Me and friends with Dierks Bentley (circa 2003)

It’s not very often that you get to meet a celebrity. I have had very few celebrity encounters but the time I got to meet Dierks Bentley was pretty cool. The picture you see above is from several years ago, circa 2003 (as is evident by my skinny stature). There is a country bar in Lafayette called Riehle Brothers. I frequented it a couple of times while I was attending Purdue. I don’t even remember what we paid to see Dierks Bentley and Brian McComas, who were performing in front of a meager bar crowd. It was a fantastic concert. I even danced (which is rare and I’m sure I was coaxed into doing it by one of my friends, also in the picture above).

Before He Was Famous

Dierks’ only hit at the time was “What Was I Thinking“, now he has an amazing career. Sadly Brian McComas wasn’t quite as fortunate, although many songs on his album were still pretty good. It was one of the best nights I spent with my friends in that picture, Beth and Alan. I became a quite a big Dierks Bentley fan after that concert, and I still enjoy all his music. I haven’t had the opportunity to see him in concert again since Riehle Brothers but that’s not saying I wouldn’t.

TBT is one of those crazy Facebook trends. It stands for “ThrowBack Thursday” and often times people post pictures. I know the old adage “A picture is worth 1,000 words” but most of the time the pictures I want to post have a great story behind them. In my traditional nerdy fashion, instead of just a picture I want to provide a blog post for my TBT moments to share those great stories. I will not share stories in which the context will embarrass or incriminate myself or my friends and family.

Biggs 2018 New Years Intentions

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On January 12, 2018

In General Cogitation

A new year means new goals (remember, I don’t make “New Years resolutions”). As we look forward to my 2018 New Years intentions, I am also going to review my 2017 intentions. I focused on four areas for 2017; Home Automation projects, Reading Challenge, Fitness and Health and Professional Skills Development. In the spirit of full disclosure and accountability, I was about 50% successful. Therefore, I guess as the first goal for the new year I plan to be more successful accomplishing the goals I set.

Biggs Labs – Smart Home

I completed nothing for my home automation project! I was hoping to have installed the dimmer switches and the Siri integration and none of that happened. If I can get my wife on board to help encourage me to work on it this year I think I should get this done in 2018. A potential roadblock is a broken SD card and lack of access to an SD card reader. I really want to get Siri working with our home automation. As I said last time, I just need to sit down and really focus on this task.

 2018 Goodreads Reading Challenge

I already went into more detail about my reading challenge results from last year; suffice it to say I was 14/15 despite what Goodreads said. The reading challenge goals for this year will be a legitimate 15 books, starting with reading Ready Player One again (in anticipation for the movie). I also have quite the list of Star Wars books to read (which begins with Thrawn), the Extracted trilogy and, of course, more Dresden Files.

As I complete books I will often post a book review. All my book reviews will be posts here but I will also post them on Goodreads and Amazon

 Fitness and Health

I was marginally successful with my wellness goals last year. The biggest accomplishment was actually running in my first 5K; last year I said if I miss all my other goals, completing a 5K would not be one of them. Mission accomplished! I will be running the Flying Pig 5K again this year and my goal this time will be to finish it faster.

As I have done every year since 2013, I completed the Walk to Mordor Nerd Fitness challenge. This year I’m sure to complete it again but I do need to start working my way through the second half of the challenge. If my math is correct I would need to start reaching an average daily step goal of 16,000 step. It is quite a lofty step goal considering I only average about 11-12k now.

Professional Skills Development

If it wasn’t my home automation projects where I dropped the ball in 2017 then it was in this category. I will admit that with all the changes that happened last year, job wise, I didn’t have many opportunities to focus on new skills. Last year I chose Swift and Angular 2 as potential new skills to pursue. This year my focus will more closely match what is needed for my career at my new job. The fact that time for innovation is supposed to be part of our weekly work routine will be wonderful help!

My 2018 goals do not seem as ambitious as they were in 2017 but perhaps its better that way. Maybe I wasn’t successful because I tried to accomplish too much. This year I am going to keep my goals a bit more reasonable. Also, I think I’ve said enough about the New Year, time to return to your regularly scheduled programming.

/MTFBWY

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I could accomplish so much more if I only had minions!

 

Biggs Zone – 2017 Year in Review

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On January 2, 2018

In General Cogitation, Year in Review

I rather enjoyed writing a post reviewing 2016 so here we are again, doing a 2017 year in review. Everyone was ready to get 2016 over with because we just lost too many beloved celebrities. While 2017 also took more, it didn’t feel as though it was happening daily (more on this later). Again, I will cover NO political or hot topics, that’s not what I write about here.

Celebrities to Whom We Said ‘Good Bye’

This year it was the music industry that suffered some of the greatest tragic deaths. As a child of the 80s and 90s it was awful to hear about the passing of Tom Petty and Malcolm Young (from AC/DC). Full Moon Fever was the first cassette tape I ever bought for myself which contained Free Fallin’, one of my all time favorite Tom Petty songs. As a Country music fan, I was sad to hear about the passing of Glen Campbell; however I don’t it was as devastating as hearing about the accident that took Troy Gentry. Montgomery Gentry has some of my favorite songs and it just won’t be the same without Troy.

We lost some great names in the Movie and Entertainment industry. The biggest names that probably stand out are Hugh Hefner, Jerry Lewis and Adam West. It was awful to lose the Mayor of Quahog and the old school Batman (and a better one than Ben Affleck). Some of the lesser known, but iconic celebrities we lost this year are John Heard – the father of Home Alone, Stephen Furst – famous for the movie the Dream Team, and Peter Sallis – the voice of Wallace from Wallace and Gromit. We also had to say good-bye to the amazing talents of Mary Tyler Moore, Bill Paxton and Roger Moore (probably my favorite James Bond actor).

2017 Year in Review: Gaming

Blizzard/Activision was the big name in gaming in 2017 with the end of the current World of Warcraft expansion and the release of Destiny 2. The Destiny 2 release was probably one of the most anticipated release of the year. Console players were lucky to meet the guardian’s early while PC gamers had to wait until October. It was quite the obsession for me, until the first DLC came out and asked for another $20 from me. I haven’t played it since that time.

I’ve had a fantastic year in the Warcraft expansion. I think, not only is this the best expansion since Wrath of the Lich King, but I’ve had an awesome time with my new raid team. We have cleared all normal and heroic difficulties in time to receive the “Ahead of the Curve” achievement. We are already working through the final raid on heroic difficulty.

Blizzcon met everyone’s expectations by revealing the next WoW expansion: Battle for Azeroth. I’m not entirely sure the name of the expansion was received well. Many are on the fence about it, including myself. The content of the expansion seems a bit lackluster. I am excited to be visiting Jaina’s homeworld and the Allied Races seems interesting but I feel like it’s lacking more player content. We’ve had garrisons and order halls and then nothing. I feel like there needs to be another evolution of that system. Perhaps more will be revealed as the launch approaches.

2017 Year in Review: Star Wars

I only saw one movie in the theater this year; the only movie worth seeing: The Last Jedi. Since 2017 was the 40th anniversary of the Star Wars franchise I decided to make that a topic instead of movies. Click here to check out my review of Star Wars: The Last Jedi. I was, at first, alarmed the movie’s audience rating was so low. Then I discover it was just some trolls creating multiple accounts on IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes to drive down the audience rating. It didn’t work, the movie is still insanely profitable. HAH!

I cannot believe it has been 40 years for the Star Wars movie franchise. Thanks to Disney, J.J. Abrams and Rian Johnson it is still going strong. 2017 was a good year for Star Wars fans, like myself. There were quite a lot of promotions going on all year for the anniversary. One promotion that I found very interesting was the Rule the Galaxy Virtual 5K. There is an organization called the Virtual Running Club where you can register and complete a 5K anywhere you want. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity for a limited edition medal for completing a 40th Anniversary, Star Wars themed 5K (click the image to see a larger view of the medal).

2017 Walk to Mordor

On the note of 5K races and running, I completed the Walk to Mordor challenge, again! I, honestly, do not remember exactly when this year but I want to say it was much sooner than the year prior. My ultimate goal is to be able to complete the second leg of this challenge which adds another 1600 miles. It’s going to be a stretch goal and one, I doubt, I will achieve in 2018. However, if I keep finishing the base challenge earlier than the previous year, I’m sure to get there eventually. Perhaps 2020 will be my target year for completing the extra distance.

I think I am going to end my 2017 wrap-up here. Overall it was a pretty good year and I’m looking forward to what 2018 has in store.

/cheers

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I could accomplish so much more if I only had minions!

 

Win or Lose the Cubs are Awesome

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On October 16, 2017

In General Cogitation

the Cubs are AwesomeI know a lot of Cubs fans are really frustrated right now as they are down 2 games in the NLCS against the Dodgers. Since the middle of the regular season it was clear that the Dodgers are going to be a tough team to beat. I do want to see the Cubs rally again and eliminate the Dodgers again; but I don’t think LA is going to let that happen twice in a row. The Dodgers are just too tough of a team, even when Kershaw was injured. I think, as Cubs fans, we are all going to have to prepare to accept an inevitable fate; the 2017 season will end in elimination. Regardless of the outcome, the fact still remains, the Cubs are awesome.

Avoid History Repeating Itself

To be honest, it’s probably better this way. The last time the Cubs won back-to-back championships, it was 108 years before we won again. Perhaps it would behoove us to avoid history repeating itself. We are no longer that “Cinderella team”. While I know Chicago wants another championship, I think there are others that want it more this time. Don’t get me wrong, I am not abandoning hope or my Cubbies. I just want to maintain some perspective. The Cubs have proved to the MLB and the world that they are a tough team. Three years in a row they won 90+ games and made it to the NLCS. Their aspirations of becoming a dynasty are fulfilled.

We have come a long way Cubs fans. We have endured a lot. Now is not the time to get greedy; otherwise we start looking like Cardinals fans. There are no more goats, black cats and curses.  We love our Cubbies and, win or lose, the Cubs are awesome!

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I could accomplish so much more if I only had minions!

 

Celebrating a Decennium of Matrimony

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On October 13, 2017

In General Cogitation

10 year wedding anniversaryFerries Bueller is right, life moves pretty fast. It’s hard to believe that this is my 10 year wedding anniversary. It has been a decade since entering into the sacrament of marriage. I think what really makes those 10 years go so fast is that I believe we have a good marriage and a healthy relationship. A relationship that started at Purdue; thus why we were married on campus with all of our Purdue friends in attendance. After all, they are the reason we were brought together.

We shared the alter with 14 other people; we had a large wedding party. Those people were important influences in our lives and it was an honor to share that moment with all of them standing beside us. The following 10 years I would move to another state and change jobs twice. Apple and Google barrel in like bulls in a china shop and knock Microsoft off their pedestal. The Chicago Cubs finally break their World Series curse. Star Wars becomes bigger than it ever was before. Social media first becomes an amazing phenomenon then a cesspool of deplorable human behavior.

I’m glad I got to share all of that with my penguin.

I Found My Penguin

According to scientific research, it is true that most penguins do mate for life. It also, just so happens, that penguins are one of my favorite animals in the animal kingdom. Isn’t that ironic. In the last 10 years I may have developed a few regrets but I do not regret standing at that alter. In the words of Lee Brice, I’m “hard to love / I don’t make it easy”. I’m stubborn, I have a bad temper and I’m a massive nerd but it’s humbling to see that none of that ever matters. It’s rare to find someone who just rolls their eyes instead of hiding their face when your nerd is showing.

Honestly, I hate clichés and there are so many clichés that describe finding your perfect partner. You’ve probably heard them all and maybe you know some I haven’t heard of. “Soul mates”, “marrying your best friend”, “finding ‘The One'” and these are all applicable, but I like “penguin”. I found my penguin. It’s simple. It’s not an overused cliché and its 100% accurate.

Florence Freedom Legends Game

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On August 24, 2017

In General Cogitation

The Florence Freedom are an independent baseball team in Florence, Kentucky (obviously). If you live around Cincinnati or Florence and you have not been to the UC Health Stadium, you should check it out some day. It is an extraordinary stadium, especially for independent baseball. On August 19th I was there for the first ever Florence Freedom Legends Game. This particular Legends Game brought back players from the Reds and the Chicago Cubs. There were autograph sessions and a 7 inning baseball game. If you timed everything right you could get all of the players autographs. It was also really cool to see some of those guys get back in the batters box but the crowd was pretty small, and that is very unfortunate.

The Legends In Attendance

As I said, there were former players there from both teams; obviously I was there more for the former Cubs players than the Reds. The players that were in attendance are:

Kyle Farnswoth at Florence Freedom Legends Game

Me with one of my favorite players from the 2003 season, Kyle Farnsworth

I was lucky enough to get to see Farnsworth and Patterson play when the Cubs almost made it to the World Series back in 2003. However, I have never seen the other guys swing a bat. I think, of all the guys there, the most surprising was Lenny Harris. He still has some quick moves and he can still make the throw from 3rd to 1st.

Something else that made the game entertaining was watching these former players give each other a hard time. Lenny Harris and Bill Madlock were especially entertaining. Madlock would take up the position of 3rd base coach and give meaningless signals to the batter and Harris would try to stall the base runner until the ball was thrown to him.

Take Me Out to the …. Crowd?

The total capacity of UC Health Stadium is approximately 4,500 seats; however it seemed as though there were barely 500 people there. I was surprised by this considering the caliber of the former Reds players as well as the free autograph session. During the game, someone who works for the Florence Freedom came down by our seats and sat across the aisle from us. He commented about how they “were expecting twice as many people”. They thought that by bringing together two teams with a long rivalry would attract more fans. I certainly understand his conundrum.

On the other hand, I feel like this event lacked sufficient advertising. I only heard about it because I have a friend on Facebook that “liked” the Florence Freedom page which was advertising the game. I never saw anything about it on the local stations nor on the radio. I was even more surprised by the latter since they had two radio DJs as pitch hitters for the Reds. One of them is a DJ for a station I listen to every day, thus my confusion as to why the game was never mentioned on the air.

Granted this was the “first ever” Florence Freedom Legends Game so perhaps one of their lessons learned was to advertise more. I hope there will be a “second ever” Legends Game. I’m even considering attending a couple of Florence Freedom games as well. They are in first place in the Frontier division and UC Health Stadium really is a beautiful ball park. I highly recommend getting out there for a game and keep your eyes and ears open for next years Florence Freedom Legends Game.

(Coming Soon: A gallery of pictures from the game)

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I could accomplish so much more if I only had minions!

 

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