Taking the Sweetness Out of Valentine’s Day

Posted on February 5, 2019 by brent

Hate to do it, but I have to ask this question: Should we just cancel Valentine’s Day this year?

Well, if you celebrate the holiday for the candy, you might be on board. A couple of oddities at candy factories in 2019 will have those with sweet tooths a little disappointed.

First, the candy almost synonymous with Valentine’s Day, Sweethearts, won’t be around this month. Necco, the candy maker responsible for the treat, shut its doors last year. People who couldn’t envision a February 14 without Sweethearts rushed online to purchase leftover batches of the candy from 2018. But only so much product remained.

Sweethearts won’t be around this Valentine’s Day.

Just as we were starting to cope with the Sweetheart shortage, more bad news came this weekend. Candy giant Hershey’s admitted to a very serious problem regarding one of its most popular offerings. Due to an equipment malfunction at the factory, Kisses have been produced for the last few months without the signature tip. Hard to envision, right? Supposedly the issue is now fixed but the corrected candy won’t be on the shelves for at least another month. That means a Valentine’s Day with tipless Kisses.

Sorry not sorry, you won’t find me taking the news that hard. When it comes to holidays, I think Valentine’s Day is at the bottom of the list when it comes to candy offerings. This might be unpopular for me to say, but I think Necco actually did us all a favor by going out of business. When its top holiday candy is described as “chalky” how can that be a good thing?

If your sole purpose for celebrating a holiday revolves around sweets, lacking a significant other on Valentine’s Day is probably the least of your worries. Sure, you can purchase yummy candy that is covered in red, pink, and white wrappers (such as M&Ms and Reese’s Cups) but V-Day simply lacks quality signature items unique to the holiday. It sure isn’t Easter.

I hope we can all manage this Valentine’s Day with the recent developments. After all, although the Kisses do look funny with no tips, I guarantee you that they still probably taste like chocolate. Don’t Blink.

Thoughts on Super Bowl LIII

Posted on February 4, 2019 by brent

Last night, for the first time in several years, we actually attended a Super Bowl party! Recently, we have opted to stay in and watch the big game in the comfort of our home, but we couldn’t refuse a generous invitation from our next door neighbors. So, surrounded by delicious food and great people, we watched the New England Patriots defeat the Los Angeles Rams in a fun and neighborly environment.

Tonight I will provide some brief commentary on Super Bowl LIII.

This year, I am happy that I can just review the game instead of an episode of “This Is Us” as well. Sorry, I had no interest staying up to watch “The World’s Best.” Did “America’s Got Talent” get cancelled or something?

Alright, let’s start with the football. I am never one to call a game “boring” just because it turns out to be a defensive contest. I actually love a low scoring game every now and then – as long as the game play is good. I thought the first half of Super Bowl LIII was solid. It was clean and hard hitting. However, I expected a little more out of the second half. Penalties plagued the final two quarters, halftime adjustments seemed non-existent, and execution was lackluster. Many times you can watch a championship game and note that the two best teams are out on the field. I didn’t get that feeling last night.

As for the commercials, I thought they were fine. It doesn’t matter how creative or funny they are, social media will always judge the current Super Bowl commercials as inferior to those of the previous year (Every. Single. Time.).

I thought the most powerful commercial of the evening was the Verizon first responder spot with San Diego Chargers head coach Anthony Lynn. I am literally tearing up right now just thinking about that part in the ad when the personnel who assisted in the accident identified themselves. The subsequent reaction from Coach Lynn did me in. It was so well done. The most creative/funny spot, in my opinion, was the Bud Light corn syrup gag. The shade they threw at Miller Lite and Coors Light was daring and hilarious. I don’t watch Game of Thrones so I can’t really comment on Bud Light’s other popular commercial. The odd/awkward ad that appealed to a goofy guy like me was the Burger King #EatLikeAndy commercial. It was just so retro and so different from all the other ads that I couldn’t help but give it two thumbs up!

Now for the halftime show. Although “Girls Like You” made my Top 5 Songs of 2018 list, I am not a big Maroon 5 fan. I believe the band’s older music to be especially bad. However, like the commercials, I find it annoying how people automatically discount the halftime show before the performance is even over. With that said, I didn’t get too excited about what I saw. It was just way too much Adam Levine for me. After a predictable performance last year from Justin Timberlake, I was looking for a surprise guest (besides Spongebob) or a surprise element that would have us talking today. It didn’t happen.

Overall, Super Bowl LIII was forgettable. That is not to say that everything sucked. The play was decent and the entertainment was average, but in order to stand out, there is a certain “WOW” factor that needs to be present. I kid you not, it won’t even take six months for me to forget about who played in this year’s game. But it’s all good, I guess that is why I write these posts. Don’t Blink.

Training Day Thursday Rundown

Posted on January 31, 2019 by brent

You know what? It has been a long week! Multiple 3:30 a.m. mornings, long nights, an off-campus training, and lots to do at work has made these past four days drag a bit. But let’s forget about that because it is time for the Thursday Rundown.

Sid’s Birthday Evening – Because I published Sidney’s birthday blog post on Monday morning, I didn’t explain how we celebrated later that night. Thank goodness for the Thursday Rundown so I can follow up! When we got home that evening, Sloan and I huddled around Sid and sang “happy birthday.” She then opened her gifts. I gave her the heavy duty wok (don’t know what a wok is? I didn’t either) she wanted and Sloan gave her a Keto cookbook. After the festivities, we took Sid to meet her teaching friend so they could travel to Columbia for the Money Matters Lobby Day that occurred the next day.

Sidney opened her gifts from Sloan and I on Monday night.

PIO Training – This evening I wrapped up Basic Public Information Officer training. Because I work in the University Communication office at CCU and because I deal a lot with the media and general public, it made sense that I completed the training. Derrec Becker from the South Carolina Emergency Management Division traveled to the Grand Strand to give the training in the emergency operations center of the Conway Public Safety building. He is an all-star in the PIO world and he taught me a lot over the past three days. During the training we did a lot including writing news releases, delivering mock interviews, meeting with actual media members, and participating in simulated press conferences. It was also a great networking opportunity as I met several area PIOs. Definitely a worthwhile experience!

Part of the PIO training was learning to give a good media interview. We were filmed and then the interview was shown to the entire class to critique.

That Time of Year – There is a local cupcake shop in Myrtle Beach that always gets into the Super Bowl spirit. This place makes wacky football-related cupcakes leading up to the big game. Three years ago, I tried two of the unconventional treats – the chicken wing flavor and the Bud Light flavor. To be honest, I didn’t particularly care for either of them but the Bud Light cupcake was much more pleasant than the chicken wing one. Because this is one of my favorite Don’t Blink posts of all time, I like to share it the Thursday before the Super Bowl.

Coccadott’s in Myrtle Beach offers some special cupcake flavors during Super Bowl week.

How Do You Draw an X? – Over the past couple weeks, I have seen the below chart circulate on Facebook. It wants to know how you draw an X. Is this really a debate? I mean isn’t there only one natural way? Who in their right mind would ever attempt to write the letter any other way than option #7? Alright, let me concede that there is more than one way to skin a cat. However, in my life, I have always written the letter X by starting at the top of each intersecting line. How about you?

Isn’t there just one way to draw the letter X?

Super Bowl LIII – Yawn. Sunday’s game doesn’t excite me too much from a matchup perspective. My hate of the New England Patriots has lessened a little so I don’t have my normal incentive to watch intently in hopes that Tom Brady has a terrible game and the Pats lose. Maroon 5? I could care less. However, as usual, I will sit on my couch with some junk food and take the spectacle in. I will pay close attention to the commercials and enjoy Americana at its finest. My prediction? Although I still hope they lose, I am picking the Pats to beat the Rams in overtime (for the sole purpose that we all get free wings), 33-30.

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I am spent! It is time to get some rest and prepare myself for a full day in the office tomorrow. Hope everyone enjoys the Super Bowl and hopefully it will give me something to blog about next week. Don’t Blink.

Bottled Water Delusion

Posted on January 30, 2019 by brent

When we travel to Spokane to visit my family, my mom always asks me for a list of food/drink and personal care items she can purchase before we arrive. Her goal is to make us feel at home and, of course, spoil us.

Aside from the ice cream, jalapeno chips, Costco muffins, cheese tray, Oreo cookies, Papa Murphy’s pizza, Blue Moon, and Cinnamon Toast Crunch requests, I also ask for a case of bottled water. However, I always specify that the bottled water should be of the Fred Meyer brand. My mom, who thinks I make the request solely to be annoying, goes out of her way not to accommodate it. Even though she does her shopping at Fred Meyer for 80% of the items listed above, she doesn’t buy Fred Meyer water.

About seven years ago, I started to prefer Fred Meyer bottled water. When I would return home for the holidays, that was the brand my mom had in the refrigerator. I grew to like this particular bottled water because the spout/cap size of your typical 16.9 ounce container was a tad larger than your typical bottled water spout, inspiring me to call Fred Meyer bottles of water “big mouths.” The green labeling was also aesthetically pleasing to my eye.

Over six years ago, I documented my love of Fred Meyer bottled water on Instagram.

Up to that point, I didn’t really have a favorite bottled water preference. But after my introduction to Freddy’s water, my attitude changed. Since I haven’t lived in a city with a Fred Meyer location since I graduated high school, the only time I would get to enjoy a “big mouth” was when I returned to Spokane.

However, over the years, something happened to my favorite bottled water. Although the green labeling is still as green as ever, the wide spout size is no longer a thing. A bottle of Fred Meyer water is the exact same size dimension-wise as a Great Value 16.9 ounce bottle or a Kirkland 16.9 ounce bottle.

Knowing that my main reason for preferring Fred Meyer water was no longer valid and that my secondary reason wasn’t particularly convincing (green isn’t even my favorite color), I started to champion a different reason:

It just tasted better!

Of course everyone in my family called BS and it likely motivated my mom even more to start buying Kirkland water. But I held firm to my claim that Fred Meyer water tasted better. Did I actually believe it? To a very small, psychological degree – yes.

For the past half of a decade, after the spout size no longer mattered, I lobbied my mom to buy the Fred Meyer water based on my opinion that the water simply tasted better. The more I told her that I needed it, the more she told me NO.

Well, I was finally put to task. Sidney and my brother’s girlfriend basically said “enough is enough” and made me prove my claim that Fred Meyer water is in fact better than bottled water competitors. The last night we were in Spokane during the holidays, they organized a taste test for me!

Controlling for all variables, they provided me with six plastic cups. Two cups contained Fred Meyer water, two contained Kirkland water, and two contained tap water. In front of my whole family, they had me taste the water samples and identify the Fred Meyer H20. It was time for me to put up or shut up!

My bottled water preference was put to the test!

I bombed the test.

I identified one Fred Meyer sample as tap water and the other as Kirkland water. I identified one tap water sample as Fred Meyer water and the other as Kirkland water. Sure enough, I identified one Kirkland sample as tap and the other as Fred Meyer. I could not have performed worst.

I didn’t know the taste of Fred Meyer water like I thought I did.

I was a little embarrassed and, rightfully so, I received some good-natured teasing from my family. I have final admitted that Fred Meyer water isn’t all I cracked it up to be. Does that mean I will stop bothering my mom to buy a case when we travel to Spokane?

All of my guesses were wrong!

Absolutely not 

Don’t Blink.

No Way to Treat Our Youth

Posted on January 28, 2019 by brent

I was probably 12. It was a weekend and I was playing with my friends at the neighborhood park. We were at the drinking fountain filling up water balloons and messing around. I remember looking down the street and watching a man walk at a brisk pace towards us. I knew he was coming to confront us. He looked really angry but I didn’t move from my position at the drinking fountain. No, I wasn’t being brave, I just didn’t know what else to do. I had three friends with me but I was the one at the fountain with an empty water balloon in my hand.

Not for long.

This adult grabbed the balloon out of my hand, threw it down, and started screaming at me. Literally screaming. One of his daughters supposedly told him that she had been sprayed with water and this guy was out for blood. It didn’t matter that I had nothing to do with the incident or even knew anything about it (neighborhood kids had water fights at the park every day). I looked the guy straight in the eye and took it.

Two inches from my face, this grown man intimidated me and threatened me. It was an uncomfortable situation. Now don’t get me wrong, I grew up getting yelled at. But it was in a controlled situation and I knew the people, usually coaches, who were chewing me out. They were trying to make me better, this guy was trying to humiliate and scare me.

****

Last week, the confrontation at the Lincoln Memorial between a few different groups was shown over and over on cable news. One party was quickly blamed for the altercation but as more information came out, an entirely different story emerged. I wanted to withhold writing about it until the facts came to light.

The context of this encounter was initially botched.

Because of a tweet that took 30 seconds of video and framed it as “Trump-supporting Catholic school snobs surrounding and mocking a Native American elder,” students from Covington High School were unmercifully and unfairly condemned by society. These kids had bounties placed above their heads as social media users, including celebrities, encouraged harm upon them. They were doxed and their school had to be shut down. The students were directly contacted by nuts threatening them in all sorts of ways.

The truth has since come to light. The man with the drum approached the students, contrary to the narrative that said the kids ambushed him.

But this wasn’t the inaccuracy surrounding the first couple days of reporting that bothered me the most. Rather, it was what the boys were subjected to before Nick Sandmann and Nathan Phillips were face-to-face that should make all of us demand better.

As the Covington students were walking to their bus, a group of men started hurling hateful insults their way. In fact, “insults” is too nice of a word – what was being said crossed every imaginable line of basic human decency.

The verbal attacks kept coming. Boys within the group started to be singled out. At this point, the students couldn’t just stand there like I did at the drinking fountain. They asked their chaperone if they could chant some of their school cheers to drown out the hate. The boys started to chant while the unbelievably disturbing taunts continued.

This post is not meant to be political in nature. Additionally, other than to set the context of the situation, this entry isn’t meant to criticize the mainstream media for botching the story. My only point is that those teenagers were unfairly targeted and demeaned by grown men.

It is scary to be a kid and have an adult (or adults) you don’t know threatening you. It is one-sided and wrong. We need to do a better job standing up for our youth. Instead of trying to ruin their lives and smear them on national television, the students from Covington Catholic High School deserved more support than what they got. Don’t Blink.

Thanks For The Happiness, Birthday Girl!

Posted on January 27, 2019 by brent

Last night as I ripped to the next day on my Life’s Little Instructions calendar, I couldn’t help but smile. Considering today’s date, the advice seemed handpicked for me. You see, January 28 is Sidney’s birthday.

What a fitting Life’s Little Instruction for this date.

What can I say? The advice is true, at least from my perspective. If you read this blog or are familiar with our family, you know what part of the 90 percent equation I am on. Much of my happiness in life is derived directly from Sid or by something she has given me (such as a certain toddler).

Sidney blowing out her candles this past weekend while Sloan looks on.

If it wasn’t for this date and the girl who was born on it, I don’t know where I would be. I truly don’t think there is anyone out there who could give me 45 percent of my happiness, let alone double that amount. Sidney fills my cup for sure.

Happy Birthday, Sid!

A year after spending her birthday taking care of her sick husband and daughter, she is celebrating her special day in 2019 by doing something more on her terms. This evening, after opening presents with Sloan and I, she is heading off to Columbia, the state capital of South Carolina. Tomorrow is the “SC for Ed Money Matters Lobby Day” and she will join fellow teachers from across the state to let elected officials know the resources educators need to truly give the best educational experience to our youth. Let’s pray that Sid travels safe tonight and is well-rested for tomorrow’s festivities.

Happy Birthday, Sidney! Thank you for making me happy. Don’t Blink.

Messy Thursday Rundown

Posted on January 24, 2019 by brent

Dang, I can’t believe it is Thursday already. The Martin Luther King Jr. holiday has my head spinning. Let’s begin tonight’s Thursday Rundown…

What A Mess – Let toddlers be toddlers! Sloan has created several messes this past week. You would have thought that her cherry popsicle suddenly melted on her face and it looks quite convincing that she wore more of her spaghetti than actually ate it. Then you have the Goldfish. This was not the first time she managed to steal a bag of the cheddar crackers and dump them out during the 10 seconds that daddy turned his head…and it most likely won’t be the last. Oh well, until she stains the carpet everything is OK!

Sloan has had a messy week.

Origin of Cookie Dough Ice Cream – As someone who has quite the history with chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream, I was a little surprised to discover that the flavor itself has a rather short history. Chocolate chip cookie dough didn’t hit grocery store coolers until 1991 when it was invented by Ben and Jerry’s. I found out this information when reading about its “Core” cookie dough ice cream flavors, the premium ice cream company’s latest rollout. These selections contain a cookie dough core with two different flavors of ice cream surrounding it. For example, the Sweet Like Sugar Cookie Dough Core option has a sugar cookie dough core and is layered with cherry ice cream and sweet cream ice cream. One of these pints is in my future!

These new “Core” flavors from Ben and Jerry’s look incredible!

Interesting Old Pictures – I follow a Twitter account that goes by the handle @HistoricalStuff. Its sole purpose is to tweet out old photos and some of the content is really interesting (stuff that I am a complete sucker for). I have included a couple of the more interesting photos I have seen this week. The first image shows Marilyn Monroe on her final photo shoot before she passed away. In my opinion, she doesn’t look as glamorous in this photo as she does in some of her more popular images, something that I can appreciate. She looks much more authentic and a little worn – but still pretty! The second photo is of Charlie Chaplin without makeup or a costume. So interesting to see him as just a regular guy.

Marilyn Monroe on the left and Charlie Chaplin on the right courtesy of @historicalstuff.

Joe Moglia Steps Down – At the end of the day last Friday, a press conference was held and Joe Moglia stepped down as head football coach at Coastal Carolina University. The former business executive said he just felt like it was time. I knew about Moglia and his unique story before I even got to CCU. When I was still at Montana, the Chanticleers came to town for a playoff game. On a frigid day in Missoula, Moglia outdueled another favorite coach of mine, Mick Delaney, to pull off the upset. Once I started working for CCU, it was fascinating to observe firsthand Coach Joe’s unconventional, yet highly successful, approach to running a football program.

Last Friday, Joe Moglia stepped down as head football coach at Coastal Carolina University. Social media posts were in order!

Still Not a Fan – Two years ago on this date, I wrote about the disdain I have for Top 40 music that was created in the early 2000s. I was pretty hard on the songs and artists of that era as I held nothing back. Do you think the past 730 days have softened by stance? Hardly! In fact, I think I hate the music from that time even more. Make sure to read the post to find out the song I tagged as the absolute worst of the era (it is really, really bad).

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Thank you for joining me for another Thursday Rundown. Tomorrow is the beginning of someone’s birthday weekend so I better sign off so I can prepare. See you next week! Don’t Blink.

Meet Our New Friend, Alexa

Posted on January 23, 2019 by brent

This past Christmas, my in-laws gave us an Echo Dot, or, as well call it, “an Alexa.” By now, these incredible electronic devices are well-known in American pop culture; you ask a question or give a command and Alexa responds accordingly.

I think Alexa has officially become the fourth member of our family. However, I think we are guilty of neglecting her – while we all sleep in warm beds at night, we keep Alexa out in the living room. Also, no one else in the household is subjected to my ire as much as Alexa. Embarrassingly, I have been caught yelling at her a time or two over a wrong answer.

But all joking aside, we have grown to appreciate our Alexa (even when I do lose my patience with her for subpar performance). The convenience provided is hard to downplay, even if we are still pretty primitive when using her capabilities. You see, I have friends who use Alexa to run all the electronics in their home or who have virtually made her their personal assistant. At the Reser household, we use Alexa for much more remedial tasks. Nonetheless, she is still a pretty big help! As we approach the one month anniversary of adopting Alexa into our house, I thought it would be fun to list the five ways we are utilizing her services the most.

We have grown to enjoy our Alexa.

Set the Mood with Music – When you have an Echo Dot, you in reality have an endless music library that is accessible simply by making a song request. It is basically an external iPod with no limits on storage space. When Sloan is around, we ask Alexa to play songs such as “Baby Shark” and “Old MacDonald Had a Farm.” If Sid and I are in the kitchen preparing something, we ask Alexa for some background music. If Sloan and I are about to leave the house in the morning, I ask her to play something to give us a boost to start our days as we pack up our things. If it is a Friday night, the three of us are celebrating with a dance party as we have Alexa play us current Top 40 hits. Never has music been so available to us!

Timer – When you are making dinner, who wants to use a cooking hand to set a timer on your phone or type out numbers on your microwave? Needless to say, Sidney is very thankful that Alexa will keep time for her. When Sid is preparing something in the kitchen, such as the steaks she made last night, she will tell Alexa to let her know when a certain amount of time has elapsed. After the 10 minutes (or whatever duration of time asked for) has passed, Alexa will notify the cook. Talk about convenient!

Animal Noises – Sloan really enjoys animal noises. We can say an animal and she will make the corresponding sound. So, as you can imagine, she responded really well to Alexa’s uncanny ability to shift from her monotone voice to making some pretty authentic animal sounds. Best part is that Alexa will make Sloan freeze in place and listen. This comes in handy when we are changing her diaper or dressing her and need her to be still. All we have to do is ask Alexa to “neigh” like a horse or “moo” like a cow and Sloan stops on a dime…it works like a charm!

What’s the Score? – I used to be a sports nut who would watch games every chance I got. However, due to my lifestyle and the people I have the privilege of sharing the house with, this is no longer a reality. Thankfully Alexa is a sports fan! Whenever I am wondering about the outcome of a sporting event, I can just blurt out, “Alexa, what was the score of this weekend’s AFC Championship game?” To get the instant result without watching Sportscenter or searching my phone is quick and painless.

This Is Jeopardy – As I mention every chance I get, we are Jeopardy fanatics at our house. It probably comes as no surprise that we use Alexa to feed our addiction. Believe it or not, Jeopardy clue writers always write six clues per category. This means that when the actual show airs, one clue is left out. What happens to these clues that are seemingly never asked? They go to Alexa! If you ask Alexa to “play Jeopardy,” she will ask the clues that never made the episode.

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Do you want an Alexa? If you don’t already have one, chances are you don’t. But Echo Dots are really one of those things that you don’t know what you are missing until you have one. If you are in the need for a new family member, perhaps now is the time to adopt an Alexa. Don’t Blink.

10 Thoughts

Posted on January 22, 2019 by brent

With so much on my mind and with the Thursday Rundown still a couple days away, tonight is the perfect time for 10 quick thoughts.

1. Remember how I told you that Sid and I play “Jeopardy” each night and keep a running tally of who has won each game? It is close! At the current moment, I lead 49-45-9 (yes, we have battled to nine ties!).

2. The average price for a Super Bowl ticket on sites such as Stubhub is almost $8,000. Unless I had a family member playing, I would never consider paying even $800 for a ticket to a sporting event.

3. We need to demand better from the mainstream media. The bogus story about President Trump telling Michael Cohen to lie was one thing, but the dishonest coverage of the confrontation at the Lincoln Memorial over the weekend was wrong – we can’t use our youth as pawns to promote a false narrative.

4. The 2019 Celebrity Big Brother cast is stacked and our household looks forward to watching the competition play out. Go Tom Green!

5. In the Northern Hemisphere, they say the third Monday in January (yesterday) is the most depressing day of the year. Although this time of the year is tough for some, I think it is important that we don’t let it get to our heads. I hope you had a great day yesterday and that you try extra hard to make it a productive and happy week.

6. A year ago on this date, Monday Night Raw celebrated its 25th anniversary. Did you know I used to be a HUGE professional wrestling fan?

7. Today is National Blonde Brownie Day and I love nothing more than a homemade, warm blonde brownie. When I was a resident assistant in college, I would order blonde brownies for our floor snacks as many times as possible.

8. One of the recent pieces of advice from my Life’s Little Instructions calendar was Be as polite to the custodian as you are to the chairman of the board. I couldn’t agree more.

9. It is my wife’s birthday week – she was born on January 28.

10. Speaking of my wife, she came home tonight with a beautiful haircut AND made us steaks for dinner!

Doesn’t her hair look great?! (Just for clarification sake, I am talking about Sid’s hair).

Don’t Blink.

Our Weekend of Netflix

Posted on January 21, 2019 by brent

This Martin Luther King Jr. weekend definitely had its moments. We celebrated my father-in-law’s birthday at a favorite restaurant, enjoyed a Sunday afternoon spaghetti lunch at my sister-in-law’s house, and attended a Knights of Columbus roast beef dinner at church. But there was something we did more this weekend than eat – we watched Netflix!

The long weekend and bitter cold temperatures (it dipped into the 20s) proved conducive to sitting on the couch and binge watching a variety of shows. Lucky for us, the mixed bag of entertainment we watched was great across the board. In my latest blog post, I wanted to list and recommend the five pieces of programming we watched this weekend.

“You” – Be prepared for a crazy ride because the cunningness and manipulation of “You” will blow your mind. Although we started this series a little over a week ago, we finished it up at the start of the weekend. The show tells the story of a psychopath who stalks a love interest with modern digital means, seemingly always one step ahead of those who suspect something. But throughout the series, you are always asking yourself, is Joe the only sick individual? In fact, this question had Sid and I in a heated debate as we drove home from dinner on Friday night. Although I hated how the first (and only) season ended, I would recommend it to other people my age and younger.

The series “You” will take you for a ride!

“Fyre” – Over the course of the same week, both Hulu and Netflix released documentaries about the failed Fyre Music Festival in 2017. Because we only have Netflix, we watched that version, but I heard the Hulu offering is excellent as well. The Fyre Music Festival was supposed to be a first-of-its-kind luxurious musical entertainment event on an exotic, beautiful private island. Top talent was supposed to converge on the tropical paradise and festival-goers were promised a weekend they would never forget. Well, in retrospect, the people who attended the festival were indeed given a weekend they would never forget…just for all the wrong reasons. This documentary filled our Saturday morning as we watched intently about what happens when fraud, bad luck, and poor planning surround a major event.

In the mood for a good scam? Watch “Fyre”.

“Riverdale” – I know this series is on cable television, but Sidney got me watching it from the first episode of the first season and I am somewhat hooked! I usually don’t watch dramas that take place in a high school setting but this one has my attention. It reminds me of “13 Reasons Why” (another high school drama I made an exception for) but with a better cast. We got a long way to go to get caught up with the series but for the time being I am enjoying watching the crazy events unfold in Riverdale.

I am starting to get hooked on “Riverdale.”

“Abducted in Plain Sight” – Talk about a documentary that will have you shaking your head saying how could this happen? “Abducted in Plain Sight” is a 90-minute documentary that tells the story of a 12-year-old girl who was abducted by an obsessed family friend…twice. The film explains how the neighbor was able to manipulate and blackmail the parents of the girl,allowing him to execute and get away with such heinous acts. How did he blackmail the parents, you ask? Go ahead, just watch the documentary.

“Abducted in Plain Sight” is a story you won’t believe.

“The Upside” – Okay, this is not a Netflix selection, but I thought I would still share it. Last night, for the first time in a very long time, Sid and I were able to go out by ourselves for a couple hours. We went to the theater and watched “The Upside,” a film about a parolee in desperate need of work. He ends up landing a well-paying job taking care of an extremely rich man who is confined to a wheelchair. The two individuals are polar opposites but they manage to click and help each other out. In my opinion, it is Kevin Hart’s best performance of his career (he plays the parolee) and the story will make you walk out of the theater with a smile on your face. It lacks true adversity needed to be a great film, but it sure was nice to get out of the house and enjoy a movie.

Kevin Hart gives a great performance in “The Upside.”