What’s Good in Tater Town 12/9/18

It’s not even 9am on a weekend day and I’m already slightly annoyed by something. Let’s see if I can find the good while in this type of mood.

Free bagels! I have a month of free bagels at Panera. It’s nice to have a reason to leave the house and read somewhere besides my couch. I need to leave the house more.
My reading has picked up. I don’t know what changed, but I’m not having as much trouble focusing on a book this week. I might make my goal for the year.
I had something stressful on my schedule this week and it’s done. I’m not sure it was worth the stress, but I’m glad it’s over.
All of my outside work is officially done until I have snow to shovel.
The Ravens have won three games in a row and have a decent shot at the playoffs.
Use or lose personal leave made it possible for me to leave work early on Thursday. It was nice to get home before dark.
Dry weather! We’ve had so much rain here lately. It was nice to have a stretch of dry weather. I wish the snowstorm was going to make it into our area, but at least it isn’t raining.
I was pleasantly surprised to see three friends of mine at work on Friday. They all brought their kids to a class at the library. It had been a long time since I had seen them and it was nice to spend some time with them.
I was supposed to work today, but someone asked if they could take my Sunday, so I have the day off instead.
Two weeks from today I will wake up in Kentucky with a week of relaxation ahead of me.

The next two weeks will be a mix of “getting ready for Christmas” stress and some fun things. Hopefully, the fun will outweigh the stress.

My Week in Books, TV, and Movies 12/7/18

My reading has picked up, but my movie watching has pretty much stopped. I’m not sure why. Here’s the recap of my week.

Books – I gave up on Little Heaven by Nick Cutter. I just couldn’t get in to it and I didn’t want to waste a lot of time on a book I wasn’t enjoying. Here is what I did finish:

This Will Only Hurt a Little by Busy Phillipps – I listened to this one. I enjoy listening to memoirs read by the person who wrote them. I’ve always liked her and I enjoyed hearing her story.

French Exit by Patrick DeWitt – It was a weird little book about a rich woman and her son losing their money and moving to Paris. It also includes a cat inhabited by the soul of her dead husband. I did like it, but it was weird.

Home After Dark by David Small – A very good graphic novel about a boy in the 50’s abandoned by his parents.

Sabrina by Nick Drnasco – Weird. I finished but didn’t really like it.

TV – We watched the first episode of Nghtfliers on Syfy. We didn’t like it. It was a little boring and we didn’t care enough to go further. As I mentioned in my TV 2018 post, we’ve been watching the new season of Lethal Weapon and enjoying it. I hope it can survive the departure of Damon Wayans. It can be good without him. Having the Lethal Weapon name without Murtaugh and Riggs will be unfortunate, but it could be a good show.

Movies – I don’t think I watched a movie this week. That’s odd. I will use this space to say that I am ready and willing to take Kevin Hart’s place as the host of the Oscars.

On Deck – I have four movies from the library: Black KKKlansman, The Meg, Crazy Rich Asians, and Hotel Artemis. I’m sure we will watch at least one of them. I’m about to start reading Holy Ghost by John Sandford. I love his books. TV will just be a continuation of catching up on shows we’ve DVR’ed.

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The One Where Tater Thinks He’s Hilarious

One of the things I enjoy about Facebook memories and Timehop is the reminder that I think I’m hilarious. Here are some recent statuses that have popped up and other things I’ve sad that I Can remember:

Wife: Is there a Tuesday Morning in Annapolis? Me: Yes, Once a Week.

When I was a kid smoking crack meant you were standing too close to the fireplace.

Imagine when we were in high school telling someone you poked his sister and wrote on her wall.

I wanted to study abroad in high school, but I never could find one who would let me.

While in Finland – I don’t speak Finnish. I speak start.

I wish I had moves like Jagger, but instead, I got moobs like Meatloaf.

If you can’t figure out how to use a photocopier, you should not be allowed to reproduce.

You might catch flies with honey, but you catch more with bullshit.

I constantly make some sort of “naked” joke when they say a player is dressed for a game.

When my mom would leave the house when I was a kid she would say “If anyone calls I’ll be at the grocery store.” I would respond with “Where will you be if no one calls?”

I once picked up the second phone in the house while my mom was on a call, disguised my voice, pretended to be an operator and insisted she needed to insert more coins to continue the call.

Once, at dinner, someone asked “Do you wanna roll?” and I said “Sure” and then got down on the floor and rolled.

For some reason, no one else agrees with my assessment that I’m hilarious.

Unrelated advertisement – My son is doing a polar bear plunge to support the Chesapeake Climate Action Network. Click the link below to donate!

www.keepwintercold.org/bradley-simpson

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Planning My Funeral

Watching the Bush funeral yesterday reminded me of this. I hope that my funeral is a long way away, but please, don’t let it be boring.

The World's Common Tater

I went to a memorial service yesterday. At the beginning of the service, they invited family and friends to come forward to speak. I love this. It is so much more personal than a random pastor who may or may not know the person giving a standard, generic funeral service. I was telling my friend who was there that I liked services like that and that I need to plan my own funeral so it isn’t boring. I’ve already told some friends that they have to have a wake for me when I die. I want people to get together and drink and laugh and remember the good times. I think maybe I should also plan my own funeral.

I would want friends and family to be invited to speak. I would hope that they would know that I would want them to balance the sad with some funny stories…

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Tater’s Best in TV 2018

This is mostly going to be about the Fall 2018 season. I don’t think I could remember back to the early part of the year. By best I mean what I most enjoy. A lot of these will not be critically acclaimed shows.

Best New Comedy – I’m watching three new comedies this season. Two will likely get a second season, one will not. One that will is my favorite new comedy, Single Parents. It has a very good ensemble cast and it has gotten better as it has become more of an ensemble and not an attempt at making Taran Killam a lead. If anyone should be the lead it is Leighton Meester. She is very good. Even the kids are good in this one, and I usually am annoyed by the precocious kids in sitcoms.

Best New Drama – There are actually several that we are watching and enjoying. This was a hard one as my two finalists are very different shows. I’m going to go with my first instinct and go with All American. It is a high school drama about a kid from Crenshaw moving to Beverly Hills to play football. It is based on a true story. As with Single Parents, there is not a weak point in the cast. I like the storylines and they are doing a good job of balancing the Crenshaw and Beverly Hills stories. The only weak part is the whole “is Spencer the coach’s son?” story. The faster they move away from that the better.

Best Revamp of a Current Show – Until the last week, I would have given this to The Connors. It is a much better show now that Roseanne is gone. She was the worst part of the Roseanne reboot. We have been watching the new season of Lethal Weapon lately and it is very good. I thought the show was done when Clayne Crawford was fired and they killed Riggs off, but Seann William Scott’s new character is very good and different enough not to make it look like they are just trying to replicate the Riggs character. Then there was the news that Damon Wayans might quit and we would also not have Murtaugh. That might kill the show, but I don’t think it should. It could become a very good ensemble show with Scott, Michelle Mitchenor’s Detective Bailey, her new “Riggs-like” partner, Kevin Rahm who is very good as the captain and a new partner for Scott. It can still be very good. I should call FOX.

Most Disappointing Revival – Murphy Brown is just not that good. The characters are caricatures of themselves. The stories are mediocre. The writing is bad. It’s just a mess. A better show – focus on Jake McDermott as Avery Brown. Bring in a good cast as his Wolf Network colleagues. Move Miles over to produce the show. Make Murphy and her crew recurring characters. It might still be mediocre, but it would be better than what we have right now.

Most Disappointing Second Season – I might be the only one who feels this way. I haven’t read any reviews, so I don’t know. I did not like season 2 of Westworld and ended up deleting half the season without watching it. I was just bored.

Long Running Shows I Still Love – Grey’s Anatomy and Survivor. I think Grey’s has done a good job of lightening the mood this season and finding the right mix of old and new characters. Survivor has been really good this season. I love the show even when it has a mediocre cast, but a good cast like this season really makes the show a must watch for me. I will be a sad day when Survivor finally ends its run.

Best in Streaming – I only have Netflix and I don’t watch much there, so I don’t have a lot to work with here. I loved the second season of American Vandal and I’m not happy with the news that they have canceled the show. There are only a handful of Netflix originals I watch regularly. I’m now down to Thirteen Reasons Why and Dear White People. I guess I should finally watch some of the others.

That’s all of the categories I can think of at the moment. Any categories I missed? Any shows you think should be included? Tell me in the comments.

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Some Dumb Tuesday Tater Thoughts on Sports and Work

This season in football I’ve heard the following:

You can’t bench Joe Flacco. He’s a Super Bowl MVP!

You can’t fire John Harbaugh. He won a Super Bowl!

I can’t believe the Packers fired Mike McCarthy! He won a Super Bowl! You don’t do that to a Super Bowl winning coach!

Imagine if this was real life. I can’t imagine anyone thinking that my place of work could never fire me because I won an award a while back.

They can’t fire Tater! He won an Out of the Box Award once! You don’t do that to someone who won a bonus award!

I imagine if I had become mediocre to bad at my job the fact I won an award once would not shield me from being let go. I also can’t imagine anyone would actually care if they did. How did professional sports become a place where past wins shield you from current failures? You are hired to win games. If you can’t win games, you shouldn’t have your job. That’s just the way it is.

Other ways sports business would be weird in my life:

X Library System has traded Tater to Z Library System for a box of bookends, a cart with a bad wheel and an incompetent intern. We’re not sure who got the best deal.

The bigger branches could become the majors and the smaller branches the minor leagues. Librarians are moved up and down based on performance. I’m pretty sure I would be exiled to the far reaches of the minors forever.

Just some dumb Tuesday Tater thoughts.

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