Q4 2023 ~ October/November/December

 

Not only are the stats lousy, I'm also months late in even recapping. Life has been fine, I've just been dragging. Maybe the new medication (started in August) ...or am I just looking for justification? I've tried a few times to get back on the wagon with eating. Back to counting calories and fasting, but I've been starving all the time, and I want my sugar and carbs.

Steps and Active Minutes are also down across the board ...

#4 got 10k every day in 2023. I did not ... and I didn't really care. 

... the visuals below aren't as pretty/clean as the graphs, but I like the calendar record.

Steps and exercise/activity.

... ah sleep. I do pretty good with sleep.

... not so great with snoring.

I'm super self-conscious about it.

A look at Life Cycle ... activities out of the house.

I'm a homebody ... life cycle, but I have very little life.

Book ... no struggles there.

I upped my listening speed a little, which upped the books each month.

... all books are rated and reviewed on Goodreads and Storygraph. #jenBsBooks

I failed a little on the family photo collages and updates too ... it's currently February, and I haven't done an update since August (even though I did make a September photo collage for the last quarterly report).  I haven't created my calendars either. I'm behind, and I don't really have any/many excuses. October ... lots of basketball, #5 got to play at the Delta Center (NBA venue). A couple Bear Lake trips for some of the guys. Moving Aunt Ana, and #1 tore his ACL (which we didn't find out until recently). Uncle Kolby came for a visit.  #3 passed his Journeyman electrical and went back to work at Camsen. Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. Birthdays in November and December.  #5 made the basketball team and started his senior season. I'll eventually create collages and update.

Annual "What I Was Watching" - Movies/TV 2023

 

 

Previous years ... I should make up a comparison chart showing the numbers.

Honestly, I used to be in the home gym a lot more.

Movies & TV 2022

Movies  ~ 2021

TV~ 2021

Movies ~ 2020

Movies ~ 2019

Movies ~  2017/2018

2023 ~ #JenBsBooks

 

2023 is in the books, the annual review. I don't really set a goal per se, but input 223 (where a goal was requested on GoodReads and Storygraph) to match the year (2023), and easily surpassed it. I am a numbers nerd, and it's always interesting to get the data crunch at the end of the year. Books and pages, average pages, average rating, the book shelved by the most other people/by the least amount of others (basically unknown! The title "Pride and Prejudice and Pickleball" just caught my eye, and it was included in KindleUnlimited, so I grabbed it). The long and the short of it ...

Here's a look at tiny covers and ratings. 

38 of the 289 got a 5* rating from me. 

Lots of 3* and 4* books too. 

I discovered Storygraph at the start of 2023 ... and while I'm a GoodReads gal all the way, Storygraph has been a great backup, and it has a lot of great visual data ... graphs and charts.  I don't know how much stock I put in the "moods" ... but it is interesting to see and compare to others. I challenged myself in October to see if I could get the pie chart to shift to dark/tense/mysterious (with Halloween that month) ... orange/emotional does seem to get top billing most of the time.

The pie chart for Fiction/Nonfiction definitely pushed me to go for a larger slice of non-fiction pie (again, a personal challenge #nonfictionNovember, non-fiction portion larger than the fiction part). I've tried to make sure I get in some longer reads (500+), at least one per month, and for format, trying to get in some ebooks, and even physical reads, so I'm not all audio. 

On GoodReads, I have 100+ shelves to track all sorts of things. On Storygraph, I've kept my tags streamlined to track some specific stats. Where I get my books (library, KU, purchases, etc. There is actually ONE "review copy" on the graph ... once upon a time I did quite a few reviews, getting a free book in exchange for a review), Stand Alone vs Series, and tense, POV, narration, and if it has the F-bomb in it (only started tracking that part way through the year ... just curious). 

A few other stats collected by Storygraph's Reading Wrap-Up for the year ...

• Longest book listen was 43 hours 59 minutes (let's just round up to 44 hours, right?)
• Book Length Average: 323 (close, but a little different than GoodReads). 
• Highest Rated Month: January, 3.89
• Most Pages Read: October, 9212
• New Authors: 180
• Books in a Series: 87 (by my record, 94)
• Re-Reads: 11 
• DNF: 12 Books

2023 ...some memorable additions:

• Joined two bookclubs: I posted in a neighborhood group asking if anyone knew of any local book clubs, and there was one right in the neighborhood. I found out on a Sunday in January, and the meeting was on Wednesday, but I got the book and finished it before the discussion. This neighborhood bookclub meets the 4th Wednesday of each month (taking off July and December). In a city group on FB, another gal posted about a book club, and we've been meeting on the first Wednesday of the month at Kneaders in Jordan Landing. It's been fun to discuss books, and be challenged to read some that might not have been ones I'd select myself. 
• The Boys: #3 changed jobs (from residential electrical to commercial) and had fairly easy/repetitive work, where he could have an earbud in. He decided to try some audiobooks rather than just listening to the same music repeatedly. #4 decided to try some audiobooks during his work shift as well. I. Was. Thrilled. SO fun to have some books to recommend to them, the hear what they thought. Unfortunately, work shifted for both so the "book brothers" only lasted a couple of months ... but I enjoyed it while it lasted!
• Audio Speed: I've heard of a ton of people speeding up their audio ... I've never done it. While my personal reading speed is much faster than audio narration, the time or two I tried shifting the speed, it just didn't sound natural. Midway through the year, one narrator was very slow. I upped the narration a little for that book ... then forgot to turn it back down, and it felt fine for the next book too. I tried it more and more. Just 1.25 speed for the most part, but it has upped my book count. 
• Graphic Novels/Physical Books: I re-read "To Kill a MockingBird" (one #3 had read in school and decided to listen to during his book time) and when looking it up to record it, saw a graphic novel version. While digital copies were available, they were hard to navigate. I ended up grabbing a physical copy from the library. I've not been one for graphic novels, but I found the adaptation fascinating. The different format made me notice different things. I checked out some more graphic novels ... and they are adding my "slice of pie" to the format chart in Storygraph. 
• BookNotes: While listening to my audiobooks, I'll often quickly pause and jot down things. Words, phrases, connections, questions, just little nudges to help me remember something when it's time to write up my review of the book.

Here's a look at my reads (via GoodReads)

Check out the post on the family blog for the monthly collages.

What I Was Watching ~ Q4 2023

Time for another recap of #jenBsTV and #jenBsMovies ... for the fourth quarter of 2023, I just haven't been getting down to the gym for workouts as much. I'm not sure if some new medication might be partially to blame, or if that's just looking for excuses. 

Starting with SERIES ... 11 different shows, 12 seasons.

The first five were in the gym, the rest were upstairs, the evening wind-down with Hubs.

• A Small Light: I'd heard quite a bit of buzz about this one, but we didn't have Disney+. I then realized it was also on Hulu, so I gave it a try. I didn't think I'd be as pulled into the story as I was. I ended up reading AnneFrank's Dairy after watching the show. 
• Rabbit Hole: I've been a fan of Kiefer Sutherland since 24 ... but this show? Not so much. Really ridiculous if you give the premise and action any thought at all. Had to force myself to finish. 
• Colin from Accounts: This was pretty great. LOVE me an Australian accent.
• 11 Minutes: A documentary ... I was doing a #nonfictionNovember in my books, and had read about the Columbine shooting. This caught my eye. I had heart about things when it happened, but it was interesting to get more information and a retrospective look. 
• George&Tammy: I actually thought this was a movie (had seen some ads here and there) and almost decided against it when I saw it was a series (not sure I wanted to invest the extra time). It was good though. I'm not very familiar with either artist ... knew the song "The Race is On" (I'd heard the SawerBrown version ... was singing it over and over in my head throughout the day as I watched this show) and "Stand By Your Man". Probably not the best show for me though, I despise drinking and any show featuring struggles with alcohol and how badly it can affect everyone just brings me down. 
• The Queen's Gambit: This was a repeat for me, a first for Hubs. 
• Tulsa King: Ehhh, despite high ratings for others, this was just "ehhh" for me.
• The Morning Show - S3: Hubs and I had watched the first couple seasons and waited until the full third season was available before starting up. 
• The DropOut: This had been on my radar, and Hubs mentioned it, so we gave it a go. Interesting.
• The Inventor: The actual documentary the Hulu series was based on. Made us both appreciate Amanda Seyfried's performance even more!
• Better Call Saul: Hubs and I finished up seasons 4&5.

My Movies

Two upstairs w/Hubs, the rest watched while working out.

• Interstellar was a rewatch for me. I'd really liked it and thought Hubs would. Hubs thought it was loooong. 
• Jerry and Marge Go Large: Another one I'd seen I thought Hubs would like. He did. 
• The Little Mermaid: I was hesitant ... I'm not a fan of the live action remake trend. Didn't care for the new songs, but thought this was decent. Still not quite able to see the "No Country For Old Men" guy in this as a merman!
• Detective Pikachu: I've been playing PokemonGo ... my knowledge of Pokemon probably lead me to enjoy this more than I might have otherwise. 
• Wild: I'm not a huge fan of "leaving life to go survive" types (Into the Wild, etc) but this was interesting enough to keep me to the end.
• Reptile: Ummm, not really one I liked or will even remember.
• The Road: My son read the book, so I read the book. Figured I'd watch the movie to compare. Interesting to see the similarities and differences. 
• Cake: Well that was depressing.
• Waitress: Actually this depressed me too. I struggle a bit with cheating spouses, when we/the audience is cheering for them to get together (he seemed to be in a decently happy marriage). 
• Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse: I've seen bits and pieces of this as the boys have watched it a few times. My son said I needed to WATCH it. It was good.
• Family Switch: Over the top silly/corny with some fun moments. I actually wish it wasn't so Christmasy. I can only watch "Christmas" shows in December.
• Must Love Christmas: The past few years I've done the "Christmas Movie" thing ... this year, I watched this one, and it was fine, but just wasn't in the mood for any more (I did do some "Christmas Movies BOOK style" with my reading). 

... so there's the quarterly recap. 

I wonder if I'll do a year end review. 

Q3 - July/August/September

 

Weight isn't going well ... no new health episodes (some testing), but motivation has been low. Some summer fun: family outings, a trip to California, birthdays, basketball ... the usual stuff. 

Steps

Minutes

... a calendar recording of activity/exercise

... like last quarter, NOT doing well with food. Not tracking. Not fasting.

No reason to even gather the graphs.

It's the eating. I know.

Sleep ...

Sleep is recorded via my Oura Ring, and then synced with AppleHealth for the graph.

Apple must have switched something up with the new colors in September.

I like sleep. I like naps too, when I can fit them in.

Snore Scores ...

Lower than last quarter, but still an issue. 

A look at LifeCycle

Not sure why the steps in September are showing so high ... possibly some duplicate sync? I do have multiple trackers. Lots of new activities in July during a trip to California for #5's basketball tournament, and a family trip to Bear Lake. 

... family photos

... had an "ambulatory EEG" in September where I got to be connected to machinery and nodes for four days, with a daily check-in at the hospital each day. Had to skip Zumba and pickleball that week. Hubs and #4 got Covid (their first time with it). Hubs had a trip to Europe, then he and two of the boys went to San Diego. We had three birthdays. More basketball, pickleball, racquetball (introduced #1 to it), more hiking and biking - Hubs bought an e-bike (and new electric scooter). 

Very busy with books! A couple of the boys decided to try listening to some audiobooks while working, and that got me all excited. Love to talk and share stories, discuss, etc. I'm in two book clubs that meet each month. I've got an earbud in to listen whenever I can multi-task. 

I'm a GoodReads girl (been on there since 2012) and I record, rate/review all my reads. I like Storygraph for the visual representation, and it challenges me to add some variety (make sure I get in a non-fiction book each month, shift through different "moods" and pacing, add in some actual reading with my eyes, e-books and even a physical book or two. I use Storygraph to track POV, Tense, whether a book is part of a series or a stand-alone, male/female narrator for audio, where I accessed the book (Audible, Library, KU). I'm a data geek. #jenBsBooks

If only I was as passionate and successful with eating/weight-loss ...

I also made a separate post about Quarter3 Movies&TV - What I Was Watching While Working Out