Why in the world would I want to review 2020?? Without a doubt it has been the worst year for everyone. God willing none of us will ever experience another year like 2020. It has been a cruel year for all. We’ve all experienced grief, fear, anxiety, denial, selfishness; but we’ve also experienced hope, perseverance, kindness, and heroism. While we praised the heroic efforts of some we spurned the foolish and parochial choices of the “I won’t live in fear” crowd.
I pray for the health and safety of our frontline workers, for the ones who didn’t make it and for all of us that have survived. If there is one thing we should take away from this year it should be to never take anything for granted; especially doctors, nurses, teachers, and grocery store clerks. I hope 2021 is a year of rebuilding and recovery and the return of civil discourse.
In Memoriam
I know this year has been so vicious and I know it sucks starting out on a somber note but I just want to get it out of the way. Every year I mention notable celebrities that passed but I don’t want to just remember them. The hardest losses this year are those that succumbed to this terrible virus. The frontline folks that gave everything trying to keep the rest of us safe and healthy; their heroism will never be forgotten. I am NOT trying to overshadow their sacrifice by mentioning these celebrities.
In fact, for brevity, I’m doing it different this year. I actually started out typing out quite a bit about these folks but I’m going to simplify it into one paragraph. In television and film we lost Alex Trebek (80 – cancer), Regis Philbin (88 – natural causes), Kirk Douglas (103 – undisclosed), Sean Connery (90 – pneumonia), David Prowse (85 – COVID-19), Jeremy Bulloch (75 – Parkinsons), Kelly Preston (57 – cancer), Grant Imahara (49 – aneurysm), Carl Reiner (98 – natural causes), Fred Willard (86 – natural causes) and Jerry Stiller (92 – natural causes). In sports and music Kobe Bryant (41 – helicopter crash), Gale Sayers (77 – dementia), Jon Huber aka Luke Harper (41 – undisclosed), Jay Johnstone (74 – COVID-19), Joe Morgan (71 – polyneuropathy) and Whitey Ford (91 – undisclosed). The music industry lost Eddie Van Halen (65 – cancer) and Little Richard (87 – cancer), Joe Diffie (61 – COVID-19) and Kenny “The Gambler” Rogers (81 – natural causes). Thank you for the memories and joy you brought us and Rest in Peace.
2020 Year In Review: Movies
Seeing a movie was different in 2020. By the end of March all the theaters were shutdown and they remained that way for half the year. When they did reopen, it wasn’t in every state and only at partial capacity. Needless to say we did not see any movies in the theaters. However that didn’t stop us from watching movies that were “released” on streaming services instead. While it was kind of nice to still see new releases, albeit in limited supply, I still cannot wait to return to the theater. I pray that they survive this pandemic. Here are the movies we watched in 2020 (although some were not released in 2020), click the links to read the reviews:
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood and Saving Mr. Banks are based on true stories, Mr. Rogers and The Making of Mary Poppins (respectively). I am often a sucker for true stories, depending on who they are about. In this case the true story of Mr. Rogers is the best of this lot. If you grew up watching Mister Rogers Neighborhood then it’s a must see. Actually, if you grew up watching Mary Poppins then Saving Mr. Banks is also a must see.
Onward is actually pretty good and something I would watch again. Trolls World Tour, on the other hand, isn’t really worth your time. It only made the list for us because we have a young kid who loves Trolls and it was her birthday present. We managed to sneak in one last movie on New Years Eve, the latest Wonder Woman film (a review will come later).
FitBit Stats and Walk to Mordor
My pace according to the Sheriff’s department
This year I finished the Walk to Mordor challenge on September 16th, which I believe is about two weeks sooner than the year before. Therefore, using a simple Year-Over-Year calculation, I had a 75% growth in completing the challenge sooner. Here are my 2020 FitBit stats:
- 4,682,221 steps
- 2,433.25 miles
- ** arrows indicate changes from previous year
I had over 300,000 more steps from the previous year and approximately 180 more miles. To finish the And Back Again portion of the challenge, I need an additional 1,625 miles. After completing the Walk to Mordor challenge I went another 652 miles. This means I need just under 1,000 miles to try to finish the “And Back Again” challenge. I doubt I will achieve it this year, but I think I can make some more progress toward it.
Happy New Year to one and all. I hope 2021 is safe and much kinder to all of us. Please think of more than yourself this year and perhaps then we can truly get through this together.
/cheers
“The more you know, the more you know you don’t know.” – Aristotle
“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” 
My 2019 Reading Challenge was 15 books. The past couple of years I struggled to meet a 15 book reading challenge. My theory that I will be reading the Harry Dresden books this year will help. It was an absolute success! In fact I came within 30% of 16 books. I’m still setting my goal to 15 books again this year since I might choose a couple of longer books to read.
So where does that leave us? I really wish I had read “Before the Storm” before the Battle for Azeroth expansion launched. “Night Train to Rigel” is the first book in Timothy Zahn’s