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2019 Year In Review

On January 3, 2020

2019 was the final year of the decade, which means we are entering the second decade of the new millennium (and 20 years since the “dreaded” Y2K scare). It’s still hard to tell if all of us still like each other. Political differences continue to divide us and it’s depressing, infuriating and scary. I don’t do politics on this blog so, in the words of Forrest Gump, that’s all I have to say about that. 2019 was an OK year, depending on your perspective. These perspectives is what I am going to get into for my 2019 Year In Review.

Celebrity Deaths

We lost over 150 celebrities this year. I’m not going to mention all of them, only the ones that I found particularly depressing. I’m not trying to down play the deaths of the others because it sucks when we lose anyone. Before I begin I would just like to note that Kirk Douglas and Betty White are not on this list.

Celebrity Deaths: Internet

Tardar Sauce, aka Grumpy Cat (7) passed away this year. If you don’t know who Grumpy Cat was, then you are living under a rock. Her permanent scowl was a condition caused by a genetic mutation but created thousands of meme. She was an Internet sensation.

Celebrity Deaths: TV

The television death that seemed to be most notable was the death of Caroll Spinney (85) who was the original Big Bird on Sesame Street from 1969 to 2018. Best known for his comedy on The Carol Burnett Show, Tim Conway (85) passed away this year. He was so talented and so hilarious. If you haven’t seen his Elephant Story bit from the show, you are missing out! Luke Perry‘s (52) sudden death was truly heartbreaking. He’s mostly known for his role as Dylan in 90210 and, more recently, as Fred Andrews on Riverdale.

The Star Trek Deep Space 9 series lost two lovable characters his year. René Auberjonois (79) passed away this year. While he had many television and film roles, he always has been and always will be Odo to me. Unfortunately the bad news for DS9 doesn’t end there. Aron Eisenberg (50) played the lovable Ferengi Nog on Deep Space 9; in fact he was probably my favorite Ferengi. RIP gentlemen. Thank you for the awesome memories.

Celebrity Deaths: Movies

The following celebrities are primarily known for their movie roles. We lost Doris Day this year, but she lived a long and extraordinary 97 years! Also, from the golden years of film, Peter Fonda (79) passed away; he was the son of Henry Fonda, the brother of Jane Fonda and the father of Bridget Fonda. The actor with one of the coolest names in Hollywood passed away, Rip Torn. While it really sucks that he’s gone, I did not know he was 88 when he passed. I mostly remember him from the Men In Black movies.

Peter Mayhew at the 2019 Star Wars Celebration in Chicago

The last celebrity death is the one that sucks the most. In April, just a couple of weeks after his appearance at the Star Wars Celebration in Chicago, Peter Mayhew (74) passed away. He is a legend for his role as Chewbacca and the epitome of a gentle giant. He loved his role as Chewbacca and he will be greatly missed. However, its comforting to know that now, he is fulfilling his obligation to Han Solo, and he’s taking care of the princess. RIP Chewie.

Biggs 2020 New Years Intentions

By Biggs

On January 1, 2020

In General Cogitation

We are not only starting a new year in 2020, we are starting a new decade. Nobody really makes decade resolutions and I’m certainly not going to make decade intentions. I’ll be turning 40 in this decade, which is hard to imagine and, be that as it may, I’m not intimidated. This isn’t a post about turning 40 (perhaps I will write one when we get closer to March). I am going to make the usual 2020 New Years Intentions; hopefully I will have better luck in a couple of the categories.

Biggs Labs – Smart Home/Professional Development

I didn’t make any progress on the Smart Home front. I did a little bit of research since Samsung kind of hamstrung me with the changes to the app. Hopefully I can still do what I hope to be able to do using Home Kit and Raspberry Pi. However that isn’t going to be my highest priority project.

I was supposed to revamp one of my project web sites in 2019, including the gift list. However I had a really busy summer at work and writing extra curricular code was not appealing. Therefore I have quite a list of updates I want to do to make this site a little more useful to other family members. In fact some of the development research I will do may also be applicable to things I’ll be doing at work.

2020 Goodreads Reading Challenge

I did well for my reading challenge in 2019. In fact I almost read more than I intended. In 2020 I think I’m still going to play it safe and set my reading challenge total to 15 again. I do have several more Dresden books to read which, again, should help my total. Unfortunately I read all my newer Star Wars books this year. I have a few older Star Wars books (now considered “Legends”) which I might dig into and some re-reading of some great books.

I’ll get into more details about my reading ambitions in another post. Keep an eye out because after I finish a book, sometimes I take the time to write up a review.

2020 New Years Health Goals

Year after year, this category continues to be where I am most successful. My goal was to complete a 10K in 2019 and that is exactly what I did. In fact, I ran the whole thing, thus resulting in a new personal best. In 2020 I feel running another 10K is the obvious decision, however I do need to challenge myself. Therefore I am going to try to complete a 10K and 5K back-to-back (at the Flying Pig). Essentially I will run a 15K, which is approximately 9.3 miles.

Mental health is just as important as physical health. I did not reduce my social media interaction as much as I said I would. Only recently did I step away from Twitter but I’m still getting on Facebook a little too obsessively. However I am taking extra steps to reduce the negativity on Facebook by leaving groups and muting or hiding posts that I find offensive and blasphemous. So far it’s working as I’ve felt less angry after scrolling through Facebook.

I might return to Twitter, but I think I am going to wait a few weeks. I don’t want to miss more of Mark Hamill’s brilliance. Regardless, I hope to make 2020 a little more positive especially since I am turning 40. Also, it’s probably time to overcome my subtle sociopathy.

What are your 2020 New Years resolutions?

Happy New Year!

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

From 4000 Steps to 10K Races

By Biggs

On June 26, 2019

In Fitness

Many people comment to me that they don’t think that they could run like I do. Believe me, the distances that I run are minuscule compared to some of the marathon runners I know. Also, anyone that knows me well, knows that I did not just wake up one day and decide to run. I’ve had problems with my knees since high school and this all began by simply walking. A lot. This is how I went from 4000 steps to 10K races.

One Day I Bought A FitBit

Every time someone makes a lifestyle change like this, there is always some catalyst. It might be a health scare, marriage, divorce, having children. For me, it was buying a FitBit. We had been researching ways to exercise and when my wife read about these FitBit’s we thought we would give them a try; that was over six years ago. There must be something about the actual data that became the motivation I needed.

My life was pretty sedentary. I sat behind a computer for 8 hours to work. I sat behind another computer or the television, playing video games when I wasn’t working. My knees hurt going up and down the stairs and I had a prescription for pain killers. Pain killers that are a controlled substance in the state of Ohio. The day I put on that FitBit is the day I decided I was done with all that.

Within the first three years I went from an average of 4,000 steps to 10,000 steps a day and I lost 55 pounds.

Walking Leads to Running

So for the first 3-4 years after strapping on a FitBit, I became addicted to walking. I wanted to take a walk like a smoker craves the next cigarette. One mile lead to two miles. Two miles lead to three. I started walking for my lunch break and I was signing up to walk 5K races.

One day, about two years ago, I was out for a three mile walk and I was walking at a pretty decent pace. Suddenly I had this thought “I wonder if I can run”. I know that my knees would not appreciate the extra stress from the impact of running. However, I was just too damn curious. So I just started running. I started out alternating between running a block and walking a block and just gradually built from there.

Within two years I was running two 5K races and one 10K race. It just takes some perseverance, perhaps a little insanity, and having an addictive personality helps too. You just have to keep working at it and give your body a chance to adapt. Eventually your legs and your lungs will learn how to work together.

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

BIBC Revisited: Running My First 10k

By Biggs

On May 15, 2019

In Fitness

FitBit map of the 10K

Two years ago I got this crazy notion to run a 5k for the first time. Following the success of that first 5K, I ran in the same Flying Pig 5K a year later. Since that day I am running 3.1+ miles every day so going for the hat trick didn’t make sense because it wouldn’t be a challenge. Therefore, the most logical decision is to up my game and go for the 10K. On May 4th (aka Star Wars Day) I completed my first ever 10K race which not only fulfilled a New Years Intention but also my Bad Idea Birthday Challenge obligation. The image on the left was taken from the FitBit app after I completed the race (click the image to enlarge it).

Training for the Race

I prepared for the 10K by still running 5 days a week, the change was how far I was running. Four days out of the week I increased the distance to 4+ miles and on the 5th day I would try running over 5 miles. I never actually ran 6 miles while training. This 10K is supposed to be a challenge for me and if I can run 6 miles before the day of the race, then it’s not really a challenge.

I also began doing additional exercises prior to running. These exercises mostly consisted of crunches or sit-ups, lifting free weights, perhaps even a warm up on the recumbent bike. I increased how much water I drunk and decreased my meal portions and soda consumption.

Flying Pig 2020

So now that I have a 10K under my belt, what is the next challenge? The next highest race at the Flying Pig is a Half Marathon, which is 13.1 miles; more than double a 10K. I really don’t think my knees are ready for that; and I’m not entirely confident they will be ready in a year. Now that I have 6.2 miles under my belt, I plan to try to work that into a weekly routine.

So, with that said, the plan right now is to run a 15K in 2020. Since the Half Marathon is the next highest race at the Flying Pig, that means I will sign up to run both the 10K and the 5K (they occur at different times), hence 15K. If I can accomplish 9.3 miles without feeling like I’m going to fall apart, then I will consider the Half Marathon in 2021.

Bad Idea Birthday Challenge 2019

By Biggs

On March 27, 2019

In Fitness

So this week is when I’m supposed to run my-age-in-miles divided by 10, a.k.a. the Bad Idea Birthday Challenge . I first completed this challenge a year ago. However I run farther than that 5 days a week so it hardly seems like a challenge. Case in point, on the day of I ran 4.3 miles. Then one of my coworkers had an interesting idea. They suggest to take my age in miles, convert it to kilometers and divide it by 10. Therefore my challenge would be equivalent to the 10k for which I’m still training. So this year I will fulfill my Bad Idea Birthday Challenge when I run the 10K in a little over a month.

In any event, I have reached a weight loss milestone as well which puts me on track to lose 5 more pounds by race day. As long as I maintain the fitness regimen and meal portions I should have no problems reaching said goal. Short post but good news.

/cheers

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

Biggs Zone – 2018 Year In Review

By Biggs

On January 1, 2019

In General Cogitation, Year in Review

It is now 18 years after the dreaded Y2K scare. I wonder if there is anyone still hiding in their bunkers. While the Y2K date issue was a valid bug in most software, it would never have caused the catastrophe the fear-mongers were predicting. Be that as it may, 2018 is over and another year is in the books. Most of us are still here but its hard to tell if any of us still like each other. Lots of people still have a hard time seeing past party boundaries and misguided political correctness. I’m going to cover a lot of the usual retrospective topics, I might throw in a couple of new items. So with that said, time for the 2018 Year in Review.

Notable Celebrity Deaths

I know this is rather macabre but I like to take this opportunity to talk about the celebrities we lost this year. I have two reasons for doing this. The important reason being to honor their memory. These people brought joy and entertainment to our lives, we owe them some homage. The other reason is merely for acknowledgement. There have been times in the past when I did not know a celebrity has passed away (e.g. when Leslie Nielsen died).

I’m only going to mention those in the entertainment industry. While I believe any person in political office definitely deserves recognition, I avoid making any political statements or allude to political leaning. Therefore I avoid mentioning specific names so as to not show favoritism toward any one political party. I will say that I appreciate their valuable service to our country and that I hope their actions were driven by their heart and values and not by kickbacks or constituent persuasion.

Celebrity Deaths: TV

John Mahoney as Martin Crane

Jerry Van Dyke (86) is widely known for his role as Luther in Coach. He was also the younger brother of legendary actor Dick Van Dyke. I didn’t watch a lot of Coach but Luther was hilarious, much like Jerry himself. Going from brother’s to father’s, I was really sad to learn about the passing of John Mahoney (77). My all time favorite show is Frasier and John Mahoney was Martin Crane, the crotchety father of Niles and Frasier. One of the most surprising facts about John Mahoney that blew my mind, he was born in the UK, he should have had an accent very similar to Daphne Moon in Frasier. Speaking of great shows from the past, Night Court was a fantastic show from the mid-80s with the honorable Harry Stone portrayed by Harry Anderson (65) who left us too soon from a stroke.

Celebrity Deaths: Movies

I know several of the TV actors that passed away were also in movies, but they are better known for their TV roles. So, with that said, we start notable movie deaths with R. Lee Ermey (74). Everyone probably knows him best as Gny. Sgt. Hartman in Full Metal Jacket, I think a drill sergeant is a role he was most comfortable playing as it seemed its a role he

Mini-Me

was always playing. We had to give a heartfelt good-bye to “the Bandit“, Burt Reynolds (82) was definitely one of the “good ol’ boys” and watching old Celebrity Jeopardy videos will never be the same. Speaking of iconic roles, Verne Troyer (49) will always be known for his role as “Mini-Me” in the Austin Powers franchise. He brought a lot of joy to the role however, despite all that Verne Troyer drank himself to death. Please watch your friends for early warning signs of depression. There were far too many celebrity suicides this year and I’m sure it represents a mere sample size of the number of deaths by suicide in the country.

And Then There’s Stan Lee

I’ve already said a lot about Stan Lee. Losing him is a mighty blow to Marvel and comic book fans. X-Men is the only comic book I ever read as a kid and I’ve enjoyed all of the comics brought to the screen. Stan Lee inspired all geeks to be ourselves and fight for your dreams. He would have been 96 this past December; while nearly a century old, his legacy will live on for many centuries to come.

A Geek's Cogitations, Conjectures and other Cortical Experiences

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2019 Year In Review