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Song Info (from Beatlesongs):”Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” is on the Abbey Road album, and was 100% written by McCartney, he called it “the corny one.”  The term “pataphysical” came from a Parisian club called the Pataphysical Society, which was actually a drinking club.

I don’t know that I’ve ever “discovered” a TV show on my own – you know, just stumbled onto it and found out it was great.  Most shows I love I started watching them because of a friend’s suggestion.  I didn’t start watching Seinfeld until its third or fourth season (thanks, Dave!), and I never saw an episode of Firefly until it was off the air and on DVD.  I sorta picked up Scrubs and Arrested Development on my own, I guess, but for the most part I find shows because I hear enough people say enough good things about them.

I tend towards sitcoms and sci-fi and not much toward dramas, whether courtroom or otherwise.  I did make it through three or four seasons of Smallville, which was more drama than sci-fi, so maybe that counts.

I tried the original CSI for a while, but didn’t stick with it.  I kind of liked the technical aspects (even though I knew they were ridiculously sped up for the sake of the show), but it was pretty gross and the characters didn’t really stick with me.  I took my failure to stick with it as a sign that procedurals weren’t really for me.

When Megan and I started dating, she told me she really liked Bones and wanted me to watch it with her.  I didn’t know anything about it at all, but agreed to watch an episode with her, of course.  It turned out to be a procedural and it also turned out to have some really gross after-death medical stuff in it… but I was surprised to find out I liked it.  A lot.  The characters really resonated with me, and I wanted to see what would happen to them.  Megan and I started on Season 1, Episode 1 and kept on from there.  We started with Netflix, but pretty soon I just bought her the seasons as we got ready for the next one.  We finished Season 5 in time to start watching Season 6, airing currently.  (Note: Bones is the tie-in to the title of this entry, as the crew could easily discern Maxwell’s use of a silver hammer in killing his victims.)

I hate waiting a week (or two, or five) for the next episode.  In some ways it’s so much better to have a finished product – there’s a lot to enjoy, you can watch at your own pace, and you can see the storyline from start to finish.  It’s like a really long movie.  Of course, if the show is really good, it can be sad that it’s over, knowing there won’t be any more episodes (the aforementioned Firefly, Arrested Development, Wonderfalls…), but it can also be sort of a good thing.

One of the few shows I was allowed to watch growing up was ALF. For years afterwards I had fond memories of the cat-eating alien.  A couple of years ago I bought the entire run of ALF on DVD. The first two seasons were as great as I remembered. The third season was… just okay. The fourth season? Awful. Just awful.  There’s an instance of a show that should have stopped after two seasons, apparently.  So, yeah, more Arrested Development is a thing most fans want, me included.  But there’s a part of me that is sort of glad it ended when it did.  As it is, there’s this almost perfect package of the show.  If it had gone on longer, it might have gotten lousy, like so many shows do (you are required by law at this point to mention The Simpsons, and how it isn’t as good as it used to be, and about how the fourth season was the pinnacle).  Jerry Seinfeld famously decided to end the show while it was still wildly popular and very good.  There’s debate on whether or not that was a good thing, but I tend to agree with him.

It’s probably safest for me to only find good shows once they’re off the air.  That way I can enjoy them for what they are and don’t have to worry about them messing it up in the future.  The downside is that once I start liking a show, I want to devour it.  Megan and I would watch an episode or two of Bones a week, whereas on my own I probably would have watched a season in two weeks or less.

So what are some of your favorite shows?

If there’s something that will always draw me back to blogging, it’s Beatles Week.  This year has been my lousiest year blogging ever, numbers-wise.  It was barely over 6 months ago that I finally finished the last Beatles Week, even.

Anyway, I’m going to give it another try.  My goal this time around is to have it finished before my birthday in May.  Aim high, right?

Here’s the original explanation of Beatles Week:

I declare next week to be Beatles Week here on MadMup.com. Basically what that means is that my next week’s worth of posts will be inspired by the titles of Beatles songs. This doesn’t mean that the posts will be about The Beatles, just that the song title will guide the post.

Since I know I haven’t been the most faithful of bloggers recently, I’m going to stretch the definition of “week” a bit and say that my next week’s worth of blogging will follow this theme. Since the blogging week is like the work week, that means the next five entries will fall under the “Beatles Week” heading.

If you have a blog and are interested in joining in, here is a list of song titles (with lyrics) and there’s also the Wikipedia version. Leave a link in the comments if you’re planning to join in!

Beatles Week 2 brought about the change that a “week’s worth” in this case would mean eight entries, based on the Beatles song “Eight Days a Week.”

Song Info (from Beatlesongs):”Birthday” is on the White Album, and was 70% written by McCartney, 30% by Lennon.  Some sources say it was written for Patti Harrison, but Lennon said it “was written in the studio. Just made up on the spot.”  Harrison wore a glove during the session to avoid getting more blisters.  Lennon did not care for the song.

Courtesy of PBF Comics, which aren’t necessarily always something I’d recommend.

I discovered last year that my birthday is a good time to reflect on some of the stuff I did in the previous year.  Here’s the list for my 38th year.

• Voluntarily went on a canoe trip
• Rode two different horses on two separate occasions, one of them for about a half hour
• Played in a softball league (and without serious injury!)
• Replaced a kitchen light fixture (with Marshall’s help, but mostly by myself)
• Rode a bike for the first time in who knows how long
• Went to Cedar Point
• Made a homemade pizza
• Learned a couple of “signature dishes,” both made in the crockpot, both have teriyaki (albeit two different versions)
• Got a new roommate after the first one moved out
• Went to my first ever ballet – The Nutcracker – and enjoyed it
• Started taking Tae Kwon Do lessons – I am currently an orange belt
• Got engaged!
• Started eating salads – my favorite one is Texas Roadhouse’s house salad with Caesar dressing and no onions
• Stretched out Beatles Week longer than ever.  Someday Beatles Week will last all year.
• Revamped the blog (with Brian‘s help)
• Only posted 26 blog entries, one every fortnight. That, to quote Charles Barkley, is just “turrible.”
• Went to see the Star Trek exhibit in Detroit
• Saw The Beatles in concert!  …okay, so it was a tribute group, but it was still tons of fun
• Saw Steve Martin in concert in Chicago — a banjo concert!
• Hosted International Beatles Rock Band Day, with friends coming from Australia, Florida, New Mexico, Illinois, and around town here coming to play Beatles Rock Band and hang out all day.  Super sweet!
• Was in Greg & Emily’s wedding
• Played a lot of euchre, but not nearly enough
• Watched more movies with other than people than I watched alone – this is a bigger thing than it sounds like
• Played Jesus for the second time in our church’s Passion Play
• Started going to a different ABF (like Sunday School, but for grown-ups), which has me missing friends from our previous one :/
• Started to learn how to dance… but only a little.  Long way to go before the wedding…

All in all a good year.  I have much to be thankful for.