What’s Good in Tater Town 2/10/19

This was not a great week. I’m not sure I can make it to ten good things today. Let’s see what happens.

My wife and I went out to dinner Monday night after work. We don’t go out enough. We tend to do carry out if we get food out. It was a nice change.
It was really warm Tuesday and I was able to eat lunch outside.
We had several really nice weather days this week.
I had a meeting out of branch Thursday afternoon. Meetings aren’t necessarily great, but getting out of the branch is.
The meeting was at my old branch so I got to see some friends I don’t see every day anymore.
I took my birthday leave yesterday and Friday was my normal day off, so I had a three-day weekend.
After a few errands and some cleaning Friday morning, I’ve been able to just relax so far this weekend.
My free birthday stuff has been coming in via apps and emails. I had my free Mission BBQ sandwich last night.
Kentucky won both games this week and now have a 10 game winning streak.
I have one more day off today before I have to go back to the real world.

My Week in Books, TV, and Movies 2/7/19

I’m back to spending a lot of time alone, so I’m back to watching more TV and reading a little bit more. I still need to work on balancing my time between screen and books, but after my day at work, it’s much easier to veg out in front of the TV than focus on a book. On to the review…

Movies – We watched Tag this week. It is based on a Wall Street Journal article about a group of guys who have been playing a game of Tag for years. In the movie, Ed Helms, Hannibal Burress, Jake Johnson, Jon Hamm, and Jeremy Renner are childhood friends who have been playing for 30 years. Renner’s character has never been tagged and the movie revolves around the others using his wedding as a chance to finally get him. It will never be nominated for an award, but it was fun and I would recommend it.

TV – I still didn’t watch anything new again this week. It was still a catch-up week for me. I watched multiple episodes of A Million Little Things and Suits. I stayed current on Grey’s Anatomy. We caught up on New Amsterdam and The Resident and now I have their storylines all mixed together and I can’t remember what story matches which doctor show. I was happy that A Million Little Things was renewed this week. I really like it. So far the only show I watch and care about that has not been renewed is All American. I don’t get how Dynasty was renewed and this one is still awaiting its fate. The big TV news this week was that Modern Family will end after next season. It’s probably past time for that to happen. I wonder if they will consider a spin-off like they did with The Middle before opting against it.

Books – I finished three books this week:

Merci Suarez Changes Gears by Meg Medina – The Newbery winner about a young girl who is dealing with being the poor kid at a private school and also her grandfather’s diagnosis of Alzheimer’s. It is a very good book aimed at upper elementary and middle school readers.

The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo – The Printz winner about a high school girl who is a poet writing about her life living with a very religious mother, first love and reading her poetry aloud for the first time. I listened to the audio read by the author who is a former National Slam champion. If you can, do the audio for this one. It is very good and only three discs if you are old like me and use CD’s still.

Damsel by Elana Arnold – Ama is a damsel who is rescued from a dragon by the prince. She has no memory of anything before this and is told that this is the way of life. The damsel is rescued, marries the prince, has a son and then that son rescues a damsel and the circle continues. Ama resists not having a choice in life. It was good, but I hope the author didn’t think the end was a shock. I saw it coming almost from the beginning. This was a Printz Honor book.

On Deck – I’m reading On the Come Up by Angie Thomas. I have Mid90’s and Halloween on DVD from the library. Odds are my wife won’t want to watch them. Maybe this is the week I finally watch True Detective.

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I’m Tired

I had a big rant planned for today’s post. I could still do the rant. I’m still in a ranting mood, but more than that, I’m just tired.

I’m tired of dealing with people who inspire rants.

I’m tired of people who don’t care how their actions affect other people.

I’m tired of people who are assholes who take advantage of other people.

I’m tired of feeling sad about leaving the house in the morning.

I’m tired of everyone being outraged about everything all the time.

I’m tired of the country being run by rich people who only care about power and reelection.

I’m tired of people using religion as a reason to hate people not like them.

I’m tired of people hating people not like them even when they don’t use religion as an excuse.

I’m tired of having a president who encourages people to hate those not like them.

I’m tired of the world being a terrible place with terrible people.

I’m tired.

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Sometimes My Brain is a Jerk

My dog woke me up at 5:30 this morning to go out. Normally, I would just stay up at this point, drink coffee and read the newspaper. Today, however, is my late day. I work 1-9 instead of 9-5 so I decided to go back to bed and try to get a little sleep. Unfortunately, my brain kept trying to dwell on work stress and it was a lot of work to try to get it to stop so I could go to sleep.

When I finally dozed, my brain took that opportunity to be a jerk again. In my light doze I dreamed that I was offered the promotion I interviewed for recently. You would think that would be a pleasant dream, but no. Dream brain decided to make me panic and think that I would be bad at the job. Awake, normal brain know that isn’t true. I wouldn’t go for the job if I didn’t think I would be good at the job. I would be great at the job and also the other promotion I will apply for this week. Early morning brain, however, told dream me that I would suck at both jobs. Sleep was not going to happen this morning.

I almost let dream brain give me a crisis of confidence. Maybe I keep getting turned down for promotions because MPOW realizes what I don’t, that I’m not good enough. Maybe I’m not even good at the job I have now. Maybe I should have just stayed in jail. Maybe that’s all I’m good at..if I was even good at that. Some of that feeling still lingers. My brain is a jerk.

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Awkward High School Tater

I actually have three different things I considered writing about today. One was another post about the effect of moving 500 miles away from everyone you know and losing contact with all of them. This was brought to mind after a place I worked at in Cincinnati appeared in a dream. It seemed a little sad, so I opted not to do that one today. One was a whiny post about views on the blog, but I figured no one really wants an inside baseball post about how my views have gone down and I think it is because I have to share to a page and people aren’t seeing the page.

The winner was inspired by seeing the following in my TimeHop:

This post was prompted by a few rejections for jobs. I think it’s funny, but it’s not entirely accurate. I was only rejected for a prom date once. I was only rejected once because I only asked one person. I only asked one person because I was not someone for whom doing something like asking someone out is easy. I was a socially awkward little weirdo who was sure that no one would ever say yes to me. It is a miracle that I ever asked one person. It wasn’t going to happen a second time. There was no way I was going to go through working up the nerve to do that again only to be told no. I went to prom alone. I only danced a couple of times when two of my neighbors took pity on me and asked me to dance with them. I generally hid from rejection by not asking in the first place.

I went to college and shockingly was still a socially awkward little weirdo. I spent the first year and a half trying to overcome that with alcohol. So, I became a drunken, socially awkward little weirdo with bad grades. That wasn’t working for me, so sophomore year I went cold turkey on the alcohol, started working harder in school and got more active in the Baptist Student Union. At some point around that time, I discovered I could hide some of the socially awkward little weirdo stuff with jokes and sarcasm. I worked hard on honing those skills. I was still a socially awkward weirdo, but now I had jokes. Somehow in college, I convinced someone to go out with me and then somehow convinced them to marry me. Almost 27 years later she still refuses to admit her mistake.

Adult, married Tater is still a socially awkward little weirdo. I still try to cover it up with humor and sarcasm. I have also developed a pretty good fake inflated ego as a new twist to my cover-up. I’m not sure anyone is fooled. Not being in the dating game makes it a little easier. I can’t imagine ever having to go through getting up the courage to ask someone out again. I need to make sure I am always extra nice to Mrs. Tater.

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Tater’s Delayed Take on the Super Bowl

The Game – I know a lot of people thought the game was boring, but I actually like good defensive games. I would have liked it more if the bad guys hadn’t won, but I didn’t think it was boring. I also would have enjoyed it more had Brady been hit more and cried a little. I’m so tired of Brady and the Patriots. But boring? I didn’t think so. Also, I really liked listening to Tony Romo call the game.

The Halftime Show – I don’t have Maroon 5. I like some of their songs. I like Adam Levine a lot more since I watched a few seasons of the voice. Still, I thought the halftime show was mediocre. I didn’t feel the need to pay much attention to the show at all. I just don’t think Maroon 5 has what it takes to be the halftime show. I think next season needs someone iconic to bring some pizzaz back to the show.

The Commercials – As a whole, the commercials were not exciting. There were a few standouts. I really liked the Bud Light/Game of Thrones crossover. I thought the Michael Buble commercial was really good. I like Jason Bateman in pretty much everything he does, so I enjoyed his commercial. I’m sure there were more I liked when I watched them, but now 24 hours removed, those are the ones that stuck in my mind. Oh, and the NFL 100 spot with all of the great football players. That was really fun. It doesn’t count as a commercial, but the open with Peyton Manning was very good. I really like Manning and he does a good job in spots like these.

The Patriotic Part – Both God Bless America by Chloe X Halle and the national anthem by Gladys Knight were excellent, but I can’t help but feel that all of that stuff meant that the NFL wanted the Patriots to win. There were no Ram related songs. That’s just wrong.

On another note – I’m now part of the WordPress Affiliate Program. If you have considered a WordPress account consider doing it as part of Tater’s WordPress Drive!

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What’s Good in Tater Town 2/3/19

We are back to the weeks where it isn’t as easy to find the good things. My kids are away again and my wife and I are back to work. This means I have a lot more time at home alone and days dealing with the stuff that makes me like this

So let’s find the good

Due to app rewards and gift cards I had an excuse to go out two morning this week for breakfast, coffee and reading time.
I didn’t get a full snow day this week, but I did get to leave work an hour early on Tuesday. I will take what I can get.
Philly Pretzel Company has been doing a thing where people with certain names or names starting with certain letters get three free pretzels. This week I met the criteria and got free pretzels.
The snow and the cold this week meant a quieter, less stressful week at work as far as the public goes.
My wife surprisingly got home from work early on Thursday due to an off-site meeting so I had less time alone to fill.
I cooked something new Thursday night and it didn’t make us sick or taste terrible.
My free birthday food from the various restaurant apps and email lists have started showing up. I will be able to treat myself a lot over the next couple of weeks.
The Youth Media Awards were announced Monday morning and I’ve already been able to finish both the Newbery and the Printz winners.
Kentucky won two more basketball games this week and should crack the top 5 in the polls.
It will be somewhat warm and sunny for the next few days.