The World's Common Tater

Random thought on time travel

theycallmetater — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 17:41:43 +0000

I sometimes dream that I wake up and discover that I am back in the 80′s and about to start high school but still retain all of the memories I have from the future. Of course, I use this to get a do over in high school where I am no longer the weird little guy with a bad haircut, but at least somewhat normal and popular.

While awake I realize tow problems with the scenario. One, if I jolt awake as I do in the dream I will sit up quickly, bump my head on the top bunk of the bunk beds, most likely say “Ow, F$#@ very loudly and will start my new history at the bad end of a belt for my language. Second and more important, I realize that the fact that I am now a weird little man with no hair means I probably would end up being the weird little guy in high school again. Just a different kind of weird.

Just a brief glimpse into what goes on in my head. Scary, huh?

My Year in Reading – 2011

theycallmetater — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 21:00:49 +0000

Top ten books read(in no particular order)

The Radleys – Matt Haig
Warm Bodies – Isaac Marion
Fifth Witness – Micheal Connelly
Zombie Wasteland Spaceship – Patton Oswalt
Buried Prey – John Sandford
President’s Vampire – Christopher Farnsworth
The Five – Robert McCammon
Feed – Mira Grant
11/22/63 – Stephen King

Honorable Mentions

Shit My Dad Says – Justin Halpern
Queen of the Dead – Stacey Kade
The Dead – Charlie Higson
Gentlemen’s Hour – Don Winslow
Plugged – Eoin Colfer

Book I Would Most Recommend

The Five – Robert McCammon

Worst Books I Read – Two tied this time

Such a Pretty Face – Cathy Lamb
XVI – Julia Karr

Books I Fed to the Dust Bunnies – both by a favorite author

Satori – Don Winslow
Quest for Anna Klein – Thomas H Cook

Total number of books read – 120

Pages read – 35,370 plus some unpaged graphic novels

Random thoughts

theycallmetater — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 13:54:56 +0000

God doesn’t like your team(or your QB) more than the other team.

Your faith is not determined by your willingness to repost a Facebook status.

Legalizing gay marriage will not make people more likely to have sex with animals nor does it minimize your marriage in any way.

Other people’s sin is not bigger than your sin.

Atheists who work really hard to convince people not to believe are just as much evangelists for their side as the Christian evangelists they complain about.

The two great commandments – Love God, Love others. Number 2 is not optional.

No Fun Allowed

theycallmetater — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 12:45:42 +0000

This is the world we live in now – Apparently some kids in our area decided to build a fort in the woods behind their house. One step in this was tying a tarp between trees to make a tent. Someone immediately panicked when seeing this behind their house and posted on the community email list to ask if anyone else had noticed this suspicious activity. Another resident responded that it was kids building a fort and that she had politely told them that they were not allowed to do this and they took it down. The original commenter responded again that she saw it come down and again how disconcerting it was to see a tarp behind her house. I guess she thought a terrorist cell was camping in the woods in Piney Orchard. I hope those kids learned their lesson and went inside to sit in front of the TV where they belong.

Penn State

theycallmetater — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 11:39:37 +0000

First – I am not going to get into the people actually charge with crimes. Their actions are spelled out in the charges and will be discussed in court. Second – all of what i post is assuming that the charges are true. I want to discuss the two main people involved who are not charged with crimes.

1. The grad student – I don’t understand his actions at all. He sees a young boy being raped in the locker room and just walks away. Not only that, he waits to talk to his dad before he even decides to report it and then takes it to Paterno instead of the police. I can possibly forgive the walking away if he feared for his safety in the situation, but it’s hard even then. How do you see a child being raped and just walk away? How do you live with yourself after that? I see no good reason not to intervene then and there to make sure the child is safe. The second problem here is that he not only walked away, but didn’t call for help for the boy. He went home and called his dad and even then didn’t report it to the police, but to Paterno. All of this, to me, is inexcusable. What was he worried about? Being fired? Being called a liar? Is either of these more important than protecting a child?

2- Paterno – The excuse for him is that he reported it to his boss. I have issues with this as well. First and foremost, does Paterno really have a boss at Penn State? Maybe in name, but that program and all that happens there is all Paterno. I guarantee the AD is never involved in any decision regarding the football team. In this case, however, Paterno decides to pass the buck and let someone else make the decision. Also, after reporting it he never followed up to make sure they did the right thing. He was never questioned by the authorities about the incident which seems to me a pretty big clue that it was never reported and I guess he was OK with that. I guess his reputation is more important than the safety of children. Sandusky was asked to stop bringing children on campus. That’s all. So I guess the answer was “we don’t care if you rape kids just don’t do it here”.

No criminal charges were brought against these two, but I still think if the charges are true they are guilty and should both be fired. And, yes, I mean fired. I wouldn’t give Paterno the option of quietly resigning. He no longer deserves that.

Selling Fear on Halloween

theycallmetater — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 11:16:37 +0000

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 of pedestrian safety that we need to follow every day. Some are lists and lists of ways your kid’s costume night 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?

Observations from Ravens Games

theycallmetater — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 01:41:13 +0000

Drinking – I don’t understand the concept of attending a football game just to get drunk. OK, maybe I get it when you are in college, but grown people who pay a lot of money to attend a game, show up drunk and then drink more when they get there? Seems like a waste of money to pay for a game you likely won’t remember. If you want to drink heavily why pay that much money for the opportunity to overpay for beer?

Security – I agree with Ed Norris on two things. One, the enhanced security will not catch someone who really wants to sneak something in and, two, the way to make the game safer is to keep the drunks out. They are the ones causing all of the problems. Also, herding all of the drunks into a long line and a crowd is just asking for trouble. All it takes is one shove to start a riot.

Standing – Just don’t understand the people who won’t stand and cheer and make noise on third down, but will stand up when there is a break in the action.

Asshats – people who make fun of breast cancer awareness month, complain about everything the team does, complain every time Flacco throws the ball, etc. I complain a lot and these people even annoy me.

Pregame – No, I’m not going to stand for a random country song that is not our national anthem.

Mass transit – how can you provide trains to a night game, but then not provide trains home throughout the game for the people who need to leave? How can you be taken seriously as a city if your mass transit ends at 10pm on a Sunday night?

Even with all of the above, I love going to the games. Even with HD, nothing beats being at the stadium on game day.

Hurricane Irene Thoughts

theycallmetater — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 13:03:29 +0000

Question on the news today – Did the government overreact to the storm? What was the government supposed to do? Everyone was calling for a major storm. If they didn’t evacuate and the storm was as bad a predicted people would be saying they didn’t do enough. I’m not a big fan of government fo the most part, but sometimes they are in a no win situation. If anyone overreacted it was the media.

I keep seeing people say that schools should close until everyone has power back. This is just stupid. I know it is difficult to get ready for school with no power, but it can be done. Look on the bright side – if your kids go to school they can get a hot meal. I also saw mention that it wouldn’t be fair to open schools while some kids had no power. Something to do with ability to do homework. I assume this has to do with the internet. Are you aware that some people don’t have internet even when there is power? Should schools close down until everyone has free internet at home? Should schools call all of their students each night to make sure there are no power outages before opening the next day? Sometimes you just have to suck it up and move on with life.

Power outages – I was fortunate to only lose power for 20 hours or so. I know other people weren’t so lucky. I know power outages suck. I think it is sad that we still can’t seem to figure out a way to keep power outages from happening or to restore service faster. I do believe, though, that the BGE workers are doing the best they can to get power back as soon as possible.

The main thing I see after natural disasters here is that people in this area need to toughen up.

NCAA Strikes Again

theycallmetater — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 12:51:55 +0000

The NCAA took a break from allowing Auburn to pay football players to play and continuing to “investigate” former Duke player Corey Maggette to stick it to UK one more time.

On Monday, August 15 John Calipari will coach the Dominican National team in an exhibition against a group of former UK/current NBA players in Rupp Arena. The UK legends teams was to be coached by Joe B Hall. They were planning to invite any and all former players to return to be honored during the game and hoped to find a TV and radio deal.

The NCAA has decided that this game is OK, but only if there is no affiliation with UK at all. So according to the NCAA:

Joe B Hall can’t coach the legends team

The legends team can’t be called the UK Legends or mention UK at all

The game can’t be on TV or radio

Former UK players can’t be honored as part of the game

Way to go NCAA. I’m sure all of those 16 year old recruits out there would have been unfairly swayed to play for UK if they were able to watch an 82 year old man coach an exhibition game.

My Brilliant Ideas

theycallmetater — Wed, 18 May 2011 12:00:37 +0000

TV Ideas:

Justin Bieber stars in a TV show about a suburban family – Leave it to Bieber

A Partridge Family update starring a variety of Disney kids with Billy Ray Cyrus in the Shirley Jones role.

Forget Ashton Kutcher. Hire Corey Feldman to replace Charlie Sheen on Two and a Half Men.

Paris Hilton/Nicole Ritchie showdown and Celebrity Survivor.

Library Display Ideas:

Band Books Week – Display all the rock star bios that have been released recently

You Could Learn A Lot From a Dummy – Dummies books displayed with a crash test dummy doll.

Valentine’s Day – couple love books with divorce books and stalker movies to show both sides of love.