Tag Archives: life

Some Thoughts On Some New TV Shows

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I’ve watched a few episodes of some new shows now so I thought I would write a few thoughts on what I think about them and what could make them better.

The Unicorn – I really like the cast and I think they are talented enough to make this show really good. I like it OK the way it is. The last episode didn’t lean to hard into the dating life of the main character too much, The sooner they realize the dating part is the weakest part of the show the better.

Mixed-Ish – Another show with a great cast. Gary Cole is always good and is once again the best part if this show. I think it has the potential to be really good. They need to cut down on the narration, It is annoying and distracting.

Evil – There is not a lot here to fix. Very well done show with a good mix of scary, supernatural forces and cases that are not caused by real evil. The cast works well together. If anything, maybe give the grandmother a bigger story if she is going to keep popping up.

Emergence – Another good cast. I’m glad they answered some questions early instead of dragging out the secrets. I just don’t see how this story can go for more than one season. They need to give me a reason to think I should get invested.

I’ve watched a few more but not enough episodes to give an opinion yet.

 

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What’s Good in Tater Town 10/20/19

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I don’t really have much to say in a lead up to today so let’s just get to it.

  1. We went to the Ravens game on Sunday. The Ravens won and the trains ran consistently enough to get us in and out without a problem.
  2. The weather was perfect for watching a football game.
  3. My son came home for dinner and Spiderman Monday night.
  4. My new person started at work on Tuesday so we are back to full staff again.
  5. We got some much-needed rain on Wednesday.
  6. My son came back Thursday night to go to food truck night with me.
  7. Friday was my day off from work so I got to rest a little.
  8. My daughter came home for the weekend on Friday.
  9. Kentucky basketball’s Blue/White scrimmage was Friday night.
  10. That means we’ve reached the point of Kentucky basketball being on regularly.

It seemed like a long week. Probably because I worked Columbus Day for the first time in 25 years. I still think it is a good idea to open that day and close on Black Friday, but I did miss a random day off in October. Looking forward to the post-Halloween lead up to the holidays.

My Week in Movies, Books and TV 10/18/19

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I did a little better reading this week. It helped that I decided to take Saturday to just relax and recharge and spent some time reading on my deck. My daughter is coming home for the weekend today so I likely will watch a lot of TV and not really read at all.

Movies – I only rewatched the latest Spiderman this week. It was the only movie I got from the library last week. My wife and son had not yet watched it. I still enjoyed it the second time. Marvel has done a good job with the character. I’m glad they have him for at least one more movie.

TV – I always watch a lot of TV during the regular network season. It’s hard to decide what to talk about I watch so much. There was the series finale of Ballers on HBO on Sunday. I watched it and I enjoyed the show, but not so much that the end of the series seemed like a big deal to me. We had our first cancelation of the new season this week. Sunnyside was canceled after three episodes. I had planned to try it. I had recorded it, but I thought my daughter might want to watch so I was waiting for her. No need now. I got a little space back on my DVR. I watched Grey’s Anatomy last night. I like the new storyline with Karev and Weber at Pac North more than the main hospital storyline. I would watch a whole show set with them and the bad hospital.

Books – I finished two books this week.

Dread Nation by Justina Ireland – A YA book set after the Civil War where the end of the war brought zombies. The main character is from KY but is sent to a Baltimore school to train to fight zombies. African Americans are trained to fight to act as attendants to protect the wealthy white people. I really enjoyed the book and I’m looking forward to reading the inevitable sequel.

A Dangerous Man by Robert Crais – The latest in the Elvis Cole/Joe Pike series. I love this series. Cole and Pike are great characters. In this one Pike rescues a bank teller when he witnesses her being kidnapped Soon, the kidnappers are found dead and she is missing again. Pike and Cole investigate to find and save her. It would make a good movie.

On Deck – I have no movies from the library this week.  Toy Story 4 will be available on Monday at the library, but I have to time my check out to have it when the kids can watch. I’m looking forward to the HBO version of Watchmen premiering on Sunday. I was already interested before I read the positive review in the Washington Post this morning. I need to read Orphan Monster Spy before next Saturday but can’t start until I retrieve it from work tomorrow.

 

This Post Might Lose Me Some Friends

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I thought of this one when there was yet another police shooting. We are nearing the time of year when we are supposed to feel sorry for people who feel persecuted because someone used the wrong holiday greeting while they still seem to think that some people don’t deserve basic human rights.

The World's Common Tater

But the topic of this post is something that really bothers me and I decided not to keep quiet. I am appalled that the same people who are all over the internet loudly proclaiming that they are being persecuted because people are saying Happy Holidays are the same people who don’t understand why people are so worked up over police killing unarmed men and the US torturing people. I will loudly proclaim my Christianity and show how Christian I am by demanding that everyone recognize my personal religion by greeting me only with my personal preference during the holiday season. Human life and dignity? Meh. What’s the big deal? They probably deserved it and even if they didn’t, doesn’t mean anything to me personally. Why do I care if some criminal is dead? Someone wished me a Happy Hanukah! That’s what matters! Why do I care if some mooslim from…

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Pessimism

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giphy

I am starting my day today in a meeting that I am sure will not be a positive one. I am prepared for it to be negative and all of my plans for what to say revolve around that. People try to get me to think about a possible postie outcome for the meeting, but that’s not how I work. When I was in an interview recently they asked me about unexpected setbacks and I truthfully said that it is hard for me to have an unexpected setback because I operate in the mode of expecting setbacks and planning for what to do when they occur.

This is probably an unhealthy way to live. I’m sure being more positive and assuming good things would be better. I’m sure it’s a more pleasant way to live. What I’ve found, though, is that for me expecting with worst is better. I feel much better going into a situation expecting the worst and then being pleasantly surprised when it is positive. That seems much much better than being positive and expecting good things only to be disappointed over and over again. This is especially true in situations that are almost always far from positive. Why would I expect the results of this meeting to be positive when history shows me that it will never be positive? All thinking positive does it get my hopes up. It makes me think of the possible good things to come when deep down I know it isn’t going to happen. Why go through that? It seems like a bad plan.

One weird side effect to this – when I am publicly negative about my sports teams, especially Kentucky football and basketball. I call it the power of positive negativity. It is one of my weird superpowers.

So, I will continue to expect and prepare for the worst and be occasionally pleasantly surprised when I am wrong.

Why I’m Not Writing…I Think

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You’ve probably noticed that not been writing a lot lately. You might be happy that I’ve not been writing a lot lately. Maybe you didn’t notice. I don’t know what you do with your time. In case you missed it – I have not been writing a lot lately. Lorna over and Gin & Lemonade asked on Facebook who was up for a blog a day challenge and I decided to join in. The problem is – I still don’t really feel like writing. So, I decided to use the first post to try to write about why I’m not writing.

Part of the problem is as simple as a change in schedule. Not my schedule. My wife’s schedule. I was in a groove of writing after work instead of in the morning. I would come home, change clothes, take the dog for a walk and then watch a TV show while vomiting up a blog post. The last few weeks my wife has been home on Monday and Tuesday so I didn’t come home to an empty house. That’s a positive for the most part, but it is not conducive to writing. I find it hard to write when others are here. She’s here now, but she was on a call, so I had time to start this. Now it sounds like she is done, so who knows when I will write the rest.

The bigger problem is frame of mind. My days can be mentally and emotionally draining. Part of it is the public. Most of it is a particular person who makes my days more stressful and toxic than should be allowed. It’s hard to come home and do anything after dealing with a toxic person who has control over your days. I just want to watch TV and not think. This is also a hard time of year for me. Tomorrow is the anniversary of my mom’s death. This time of year was when I was driving home a lot to see here when I knew my time with her was limited. I still struggle with my decision to not go home to be there at the end. I wanted my last memories to be better and I’ve always felt bad about that. Like I failed her. So, depression, grief, and mental exhaustion makes it hard to feel like vomiting words on a blog.

Finally, I’m boring. I don’t have the type of life that gives me a lot of stories for a blog.  It’s hard to be a blogger when you’re boring.

So, that’s why I’m struggling to write. Who knows if the blog a day challenge will work. We will see,

Why I’ve Always Loved Columbus Day Until Now

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I wrote the below post last year about how I’ve always loved the federal holidays when schools were open. It was nice to have a holiday when the kids were in school. I didn’t do anything fun, but it was nice to have some hours of my own. When my job announced that we were going to open on Columbus Day and replace that holiday with the day after Thanksgiving I thought it was a good idea. I would rather have that day anyway. Then I realized I work the Saturday after Thanksgiving and had the Friday off already. So, all I get this year is an extra day of work and a day of vacation added to my bank when I work the day after the new holiday. If you read my blog regularly you probably know how I feel about another day at work. I could really use that lost holiday today.

 

It has nothing to do with Columbus, though it is fun to celebrate by going out, getting lost, invading someone’s house and declaring it my own I do enjoy that, but that’s not why I’ve loved Columbus Day.

My love of the day came late in life. I didn’t care anything about it until I got a job where Columbus Day is a day off. Even then, it didn’t become one of my favorite days off. It was in October and the weather was cooler, but it couldn’t compete with some of the other days off.

Once I had a kid in early elementary school it became a holiday I spent volunteering at the school. With both of us having full-time jobs, we weren’t able to do much more than chaperone a field trip here and there, so we used Columbus Day and Veteran’s Day as a time to go and volunteer in the classroom. That’s not when t became my favorite holiday. Honestly, there were plenty of times I was annoyed at spending my day off at school.

This is my admission that Columbus Day and Veterans Day became two of my favorite holidays when the kids got older and they no longer wanted us in the classroom. It is one of the few days off we had where the kids still went to school. I didn’t have to spend my day off entertaining kids I didn’t have to spend my day off watching bad children’s television. I could spend my day off relaxing(assuming my wife didn’t give me jobs to do). We never did anything really fun. I wish we had spent some of the time going out and doing a “date day” but it was nice to have a few hours off.

Now, here I am on my first empty nest Columbus Day. We are both still off. The kids aren’t here. It seems like a normal Columbus Day, but it isn’t. The kids won’t be coming home from school this afternoon. It’s not any different from my standard Friday or Saturday off. We still won’t do anything fun outside of the house. I might do yard work. I might clean a bathroom. I will watch the Braves game this afternoon.

Apparently, the moral of the story is that I am, and always have been, boring.

What’s Good in Tater Town 10/13/19

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Well, that was a week. All the stress that was gone for a while came flooding right back in. Funny how that works. Still waiting on that rejection email, so that bad was delayed for another week. The Braves choked in the playoffs so baseball is dead to me for the year. Let’s see if I can find the good.

  1. The Ravens beat the Steelers and are back in first place for now.
  2. My son came home for dinner on Sunday night.
  3. There were a couple of days when the stress mysteriously disappeared.
  4. Kentucky basketball season officially started Friday night with Big Blue Madness.
  5. I worked Friday so that means I get two days in a row away from work after working 7 days in a row.
  6. It was a nice enough day yesterday to sit on the deck and finish my book.
  7. Kentucky football beat Arkansas last night.

That’s all I can come up with right now. I would like to say things might get better next week, but without a change in where I spend my days, I don’t think it will.

Selling Fear on Halloween

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backlit black candle candlelight

Photo by Toni Cuenca on Pexels.com

I notice more and more these days that people are selling fear on Halloween. Unfortunately, I’m not talking about the good fear of haunted houses, horror movies, and costumes. I’m talking about the “people are trying to kill/molest your children” fear or the “Your kids might die in a horrible accident” fear. The news is covered with stories on Halloween safety. Some are good with nice tips on pedestrian safety that we need to follow every day. Some are lists and lists of ways your kid’s costume might lead to their death. Maybe they should all just stay home since today’s kids are apparently unable to handle walking down the street in a costume without dying.

If you have a gifted and talented child who can survive the treacherous trek through the neighborhood, they will likely die at home from eating tampered Halloween candy. According to what I read in the news our seemingly normal neighbors have just been biding their time, waiting for the perfect day to kill our children with poisoned candy. Or not. What they don’t tell you is that there has never been a confirmed case of a stranger tampering with Halloween candy. Never. But still, we are told to waste the ER’s time in some areas by X-raying candy, throw out homemade goodies and inspect all other candy for tampering. All for unsubstantiated fear.

I won’t even get into the hype over the round-up of sex offenders.

Why can’t we just let go of the fear and let our kids have fun for a change?

My Week in Books, Movies, and TV 10/11/19

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I’ve not done any better with my reading this week. There’s just too much TV to watch and no book that is pulling me in enough to make me want to read instead of watching all of the new shows.  I’m going to be way below my goal for the year.

Movies –  We watched two movies last week: John Wick 3 and Dark Phoenix. I liked the first two John Wick movies so I knew I was likely to enjoy the third. I don’t really like the X-Men movies so I knew I was unlikely to enjoy Dark Phoenix. I was correct in both cases. Was it a self-fulfilling prophecy? Maybe. Was Dark Phoenix just a bad movie? Probably. Was John Wick violent but enjoyable? Yes. So, watch John Wick 3 and skip Dark Phoenix unless you are one of those weirdos that like the X-Men movies.

TV – I watched the Braves choke again in the postseason. I hate reruns.  I’m still enjoying the new show Emergence, but I don’t see how it ould be anything more than a 13 episode mini-series. The mystery surrounding the events of the show does not seem to be one that can last more than that and I don’t see where they can take it in a season 2 that makes sense. I’ve watched another episode of The Unicorn and I still think there is potential for a good show in there if they will stop leaning so hard on the thin premise of the main character not knowing how to navigate dating. They need to take a lesson from Cougar Town and move to make it an ensemble comedy about life and not episode after episode of awkward dates. I still think Prodigal Son is the best of the new shows.

Books – I finished The Word is Murder by Anthony Horowitz. It is a mystery where Horowitz makes himself a character as the Watson to a detective named Hawthorne’s Sherlock. I liked the fact that it was a true mystery and that I didn’t know who the killer was until the reveal. That is rare. I didn’t like Horowitz as a narrator. I thought there was too much about all he has done to the point that it felt like I was reading his resume in parts. There was an unnecessary scene where he meets with Peter Jackson and Spielberg that thought was too name droppy. I think he made Hawthorne too unlikeable. A lot of promise for a series wasted. The real critics loved it.

On Deck – I have the new Spiderman on DVD. I’ve seen it, but my wife has not.  We will definitely watch it at some point this weekend.  I’m reading Dread Nation by Justina Ireland. It is a YA novel about zombies in 1800’s post Civil War America. My daughter is coming home next weekend so we will probably watch the new Nancy Drew show while she is here. I have a lot of new TV that I’m waiting to watch with her.