Fall TV shows...Thanks Hulu?

For whatever reason, during my time in grad school, I started watching a LOT of TV shows. I was keeping up on something like 20 shows during the Fall season. That's nuts! I kept up with them really well until last Fall. For whatever reason, I lost interest. Shows I had watched seasons on end, I just lost interest in watching. I thought it was just the fall. I got behind and it's hard catching up on so many TV shows once you fall behind. I thought I'd catch up again during the winter. It didn't happen. Then I thought I'd catch up and keep up with the summer shows. It didn't happen. So...Here is the start to another fall season. I had no hopes in keeping up, but who knows...Well, week 1 of fall season is in the history books and I've watched all of 3 fall shows already! How have I done this? All thanks to Hulu...

I've kept my subscription with them all this time. So far, it's been the most useful $8/month for a digital service. Netflix is nice and all to get the DVDs if you want them, but since I keep up with new movies and not old ones, I have no need for Netflix's DVD mail service. Redbox works fine for that. Since I don't stream movies that often anyway, Netflix and Redbox instant are not necessary and if I do want to watch an old streaming video at random, I've got AmazonPrime. I utilize AmazonPrime for the 2-day shipping, not the Instant, which puts me into the "fringe benefit" category of Amazon instant. So, in all, Hulu has been the best $8/month for me. I'm mostly paying for the service because I can watch Hulu on my iPad or iPhone anywhere, which is worth it to me. I don't really pay for cable TV (my TV hasn't been hooked up in 1.5 years and we pay the BASIC TV channels so I would get like 15 channels -- only wanted the internet, really) so the $8/month makes up for that.

Since many shows are streaming on Hulu, I can watch them the next day on Hulu! USA Network is still behind on shows (like a week or so) and that's annoying, but at least the rest I can watch right away. I will say, Hulu needs to do more commercials, though. The fact I got the Subway $5 sub song in my head after one night of watching 3 shows means they played it way too much! At any rate, this season is all about Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Dracula (starts in Oct), and Sleepy Hollow for me. I will look into Almost Human, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Ironside, Masterchef Junior, Once Upon a Time in Wonderland (really doubtful about this), Reign, The Blacklist, The Crazy Ones, and The Tomorrow People. Of the latter list, mostly The Crazy Ones and The Blacklist I'm looking forward to watching. This past week was the "official" start to fall TV shows, but next week is the really BIG week for shows to start.

This week I watched only Bones, Ironside (early pilot release on Hulu), Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and Sleepy Hollow. Ironside will be interesting, I guess. I know it's been called a procedural crime-drama, but the creators are saying it's going to be character driven by Ironside who is a wheelchair bound detective. First one was okay. We'll see. Brooklyn Nine-Nine is a workplace comedy so think The Office, but a police station instead. They quasi-solve crimes during the half-hour too. First one wasn't too bad. Not sure how much I'll keep up with it. I'm not a big comedy fan, so we'll see. Sleepy Hollow was interesting. They have an interesting premise, but we'll see the direction they take with it. I'm mostly worried the main story will drag on forever. My thought is they'll finish the main story this season and pick up another next, but we don't know, yet. The premise, at this point, is with the four horsemen and Revelations from the Bible. Should be interesting. Pilot wasn't bad, but we'll see.

I've noticed there are fewer crime-dramas and more period or fantasy shows (e.g., Dracula, Reign, Almost Human, etc). Sure, some of them are also crime shows like The Blacklist or Ironside, but you definitely don't see as many as you did 3 years ago. Some were cancelled after last season (e.g., Body of Proof, The Glades, CSI: NY, etc), but I think with the popularity of Once Upon a Time, Game of Thrones, Sherlock, Downton Abbey, etc, we're heading towards more "edgy" and character driven TV shows (The Blacklist and last year's The Following are prime examples of "edgy" crime-dramas). Not to mention the popularity of throwing old into the new (e.g., Sleepy Hollow). We're also looking for the next "sci-fi" show. Fringe concluded last season and no one has been able to replace Lost. Revolution seems to be going okay. I started it last year and never made it past the 2nd episode (not on purpose). I stopped trying after I made it through some other sci-fi show and they cancelled it!

I am hoping there are some shows this season where I really like them because not a lot carried over from last year and shows like Bones, Criminal Minds, CSI, etc are becoming "old" and every season that passes makes me nervous they'll be cancelled soon. I still haven't recovered from Numb3rs ending. One of my favorite shows and I still rewatch the entire show yearly. At any rate, we'll see how the fall season goes!

In other news, Monday is my presentation for the Aquarium. Should go well. After that, I'm pretty much finished. Reading is going up and down in weird spikes...I think I'm simply adrift right now on what to read...I've tried rereading old books, tried new ones, tried anthologies, etc. It's been a weird reading week...and it's not like I don't want to read anything; I just can't find anything I really want to read? Weird.

Movies! Lots of movies this week I wanted to see...

Epic (Colin Farrell, Josh Hutcherson, Amanda Seyfried, etc) - Decent animation. Not the most original of stories. At least it wasn't Fern Gully or anything. It's not the most happiest of endings...Or, in general. I mean, it starts off kind of sad and then sure, everything is saved, but the two main characters have an awkward "happily ever after" story...I don't know. It wasn't the greatest animation story. There are some slightly funny parts that are alluded more towards adults, but it's a forgettable movie. I will ask one thing...Why is it when you have "little" people type movies (i.e., fairies) the soundtracks always take on a Gaelic sound to it? Must be the folklore origination. I like it, but it's kind of interesting. Grade: C

The Bling Ring (Katie Chang, Israel Broussard, Emma Watson, etc) -Wow, this was really boring. I thought it was going to be more interesting, but after watching it after World War Z and just watching it in general, it was really boring. I'm not sure it gets across the point it was trying to make either. Most people's worries is it was going to glorify the crimes and it kind of does...? I don't know. They didn't get hit with a super harsh punishment for as much as they stole. I did think Katie Chang was a good actress. I didn't really like Watson in this. I've liked her in every film I've watched of hers, but this one didn't really do it for me. Maybe it was the role...She comes off pretentious and fake and that is her character. Hm. Maybe it was good acting...? At any rate, it was really a dud of a film and I don't think it got anything across at all. Definite waste of time to watch. I learned more from Googling the crimes than the movie. Grade: D

World War Z (Brad Pitt) - Wasn't sure about this, but it actually lived up to expectations and maybe even surprised me by how much I actually enjoyed it. It's not great, though, and fighting zombies wasn't the point of the movie (not that I wanted it to be about fighting zombies). The point of the movie is Pitt's character is trying to find how it started (patient zero) and, in the process, comes up with an idea to "camouflage" healthy humans from being attacked by zombies. In ways, it's more "scientific" than action. It's like if you watched Contagion, but instead the virus turns you into a zombie. It wasn't a bad movie on its own, but it wasn't great either. It sort of just passed the time and sent you on a world trip (starts in PA, takes you to NJ, then S Korea, Israel, Wales, and Nova Scotia). I will say, after recently watching Oblivion and watching World War Z, between Pitt and Cruise, I prefer Pitt as an actor. Grade: C (perhaps C+ purely because I liked it more than I thought I would)

Disconnect (Jason Bateman, Paula Patton, Alexander Skarsgard, etc) - What an oddly depressing and interesting movie. The premise is how the internet disconnects us from ourselves and, at the same time, shows how destructive it can be to those around us (and further disconnects us). They're interconnecting stories (some more than others) and is along the lines of Crash. I liked Crash. I know there are many who don't, but I like the interconnecting stories. This one does it too, but it has a majority of depressing stories. The acting was good and the cast of actors I enjoyed. Obviously, the Internet doesn't have to lead to any of the things it caused in the movie, but you can also see it staring at us too. It is a little dramatic and stylized. The end kind of dragged on as everyone's consequences finally come to head. I admit I was so bored with the ending I actually fast forwarded through parts of it because it was so slow. It's not like you couldn't see any of them coming to light a mile away. It's interesting and good acting, but the story does drag and is a little shallow. Grade: C

Bless Me, Ultima (Luke Ganalon, Miriam Colon, Benito Martinez) - Had to watch this since I liked the book when I read it as a sophomore in high school. I think Ganalon did a good acting job, but there also wasn't a lot for him to "act" too. He does a lot of "staring" and contemplation when things occur around him. I thought Colon was a good Ultima. I read one review where they thought the movie doesn't have the same "punch" as the book, but if you read the book, you'd probably enjoy the movie more. I think I'm definitely in that category. I think if you hadn't read the book, the movie will seem less interesting and make you lose the deeper intrigue in the book. At the heart of the book or movie is a coming of age story, but it also debates mysticism and religion. I think it really touches the surface of the book in that regard. With that said, I thought the movie was well done from my perspective. I enjoyed it and glad I watched it. I wish it was a little deeper, but you can't expect that in a movie. Grade: C+/B-

Based on my rough count, looks like I'll make 100 movies by the end of the year and that's not including watching any in theater. It'll all come down to when they show up at RedBox.

Here's my rough estimate:

1. Fill the Void
2. Great Gatsby
3. Imposter
4. The Kings of Summer
5. Redemption
6. This is the End
7. After Earth
8. The Colony
9. 2 Guns
10. Before Midnight
11. The Croods
12. Elysium
13. Hangover Part III
14. Heat
15. The Internship
16. Lone Ranger
17. Immortal Instruments: City of Bones
18. Paranoia
19. Planes
20. RIPD
21. Red 2
22. Turbo
23. White House Down

Those 23 movies would take me to 100! I'm sure there will be some other "indies" in there too. Every time I watch an indie, I find another 1 or 2 to watch from the trailers. I still feel like it's been a dud of a year for me, though. I think watching all these movies is making me more critical. LoL I do appreciate a well acted drama, though. At any rate, on to the end of the movie season where it will bring Thor and Hunger Games and Hobbit!

Now I'm off to paint my nails... :)

To new beginnings!

Okay, I think I've properly mourned the loss of my Xanga site (after writing my "ordeal" post)... :P I've got a new blog title (I've always liked the word "abode") and I've got the "updated" version of my former background (kid not, DigitalBlasphemy updated the background picture I was using). So...To new beginnings! I suppose it's fitting that I changed things when it's the 10-year anniversary of my blog...

Anyway, I'm in the final, final stages of my Aquarium report. I present in a little over a week and then it's whatever that needs to be changed from the presentation and then I'm finished! Yay! Feels kind of weird to think I won't have any other "work" hanging over my head after I get home from work.

Cooking hasn't been happening the last few weeks. I worked a 7-day workweek and was tired from those days. Then the next week was crazy and then I had a 4-day weekend. I spent the weekend relaxing to the fullest! I really needed those 4-days off. I was exhausted and just not handling work well. I feel better at work now. Still haven't gotten back to cooking, but hopefully I'll get back to it at some point.

Health wise...it's been a weird year. I don't have health insurance right now, but I'm thinking of signing up for next year. Not because of Obamacare, but I have a feeling I might need some expensive tests if I can't get my heart palpitations under control. I had a dizzy, lightheaded spell a few weeks ago and it's gone, but they lingered for days afterwards. They weren't nearly as bad as the first few days (the first day, I was in bed most of it because I was so dizzy), but it was enough to make me feel ill for a week. Not sure if they were connected, but after that, my heart palpitations were really bad. Since then, they've calmed down some, but I still get them almost daily. Some are worse than others. They did stop a good month or so, but I'm not sure what caused them to stop. I think a good part of it is my diet. They stopped around the time I was cooking so maybe it has something to do with salt content, but I'm not sure. Exercise helps, of course, and I don't have them during the exercise, but I still get them afterwards. Who knows! I'm watching it.

My heel spurs also came back during my 7-day workweek. They're slowly going away. They're so annoying! You never appreciate your shoes more than when you can't walk without them...I just need to remember to stretch. Heel spurs you can't really get rid of (they're a bony protrusion in your heel), but you can keep them under control through stretching and other exercises. Heel spurs flare up when the tendon on the bottom of your foot flares up and gets irritated further by the spur. It's a lot like biting your cheek and then you keep biting your cheek because it's flared up. If my tendon is irritated it, it rubs against the spur, and the spur irritates it more. Stretching helps keep the tendon from getting irritated.

I get the weird things, don't I? At least my chest sebaceous cyst is still gone, even if it itches sometimes and has left a weird "scar." :)

Kodie (my cat) had quite an ordeal the last few weeks. She was scratching and licking a lot, but we just thought she was allergic to something (her food kept changing). Then, I found a flea on me in bed. Ew! None of the animals are outdoor, but it doesn't mean we couldn't have brought them in. Her scratching and licking got REALLY bad. So bad, she removed almost all the base fur on her back near the base of her tail (looks like someone who is bald and is trying to hide the bald patches). She was also licking a spot on her back leg so much, she was licking it raw and creating a wound. So, we decided to put her soft cone on her to get her to stop licking the spot on her leg. All the licking was causing her to throw up a lot too. In the 2 years beforehand, she threw up 3 times. In just 3 days, she threw up 4 times. That's how much fur she was licking off herself. So...the cone went on, which meant I haven't slept well in a week. She had the cone for 3 or 4 days and since she couldn't lick, she was scratching a LOT and she kept scratching at her neck (where the cone was) and so she'd hit the cone and it'd make an annoying, loud noise. And then she'd want to lick, so she'd lick the cone, which made an annoying, loud noise. Yeah, she was kicked out of the room a lot. FINALLY got her Advantage and put it on her yesterday. In 24 hours, you can see the difference. She's not itching as much and the cone stopped her habit of licking. She seems far more comfortable now. I know she's still going to pull fur out because she's covered in scabs, but I'm hoping the fleas were the problem and not an allergy. We didn't put Advantage on the rabbits, so we'll see. She's currently sleeping in my trashcan. LoL My FULL trashcan. What a weird cat...

Anyway, to the large movie update I said that needed to be completed. This is a good week since there are no new movies I've watched and there are several coming out next week. Most opinions are going to be short since it's been a while since I've seen some of these and there's so many of them.

Mud (Matthew McConaughey, Tye Sheridan, Jacob Lofland, Reese Witherspoon) - There's been talk about McConaughey getting an Oscar nod for Mud (maybe not the short list, but it comes up in conversation). He's the title role and it's an interesting, albeit slow movie. It's about growing up and relationships (or love). I wouldn't recommend it for everyone as it is slow, but I thought the acting was good. It's kind of nice to see McConaughey in a different role, though. The boys were also really good. Grade: B

Olympus Has Fallen (Gerard Butler, Aaron Eckhart, Morgan Freeman) - Full of cliches and Chris and I laughed a lot in this movie. First off, you know this is going to be an over-the-top action film and it is, but there are just funny scenes in it (like the lady who's running away from the Washington Monument as it's collapsing). The other funny thing is Freeman isn't the POTUS! What...?! Well, he's Speaker of the House and the actual POTUS (Eckhart) is basically kidnapped so...Freeman is acting POTUS! LoL The other laughable thing was it was Koreans who attacked the nation and kidnapped the President. At first, you're made to believe it's S. Koreans, but then you find out it's really a guy who's infiltrated the SKoreans and he's rooting for the NKoreans. Chris and I both went, "What?! It's Koreans?!" Both being Korean, it was funny to us. When was the last time you saw the US attacked by Koreans in a movie?! At any rate, it was a good rental, action  movie, but we laughed a lot (non-intentional laughs) too. Grade: C

Bullet to the Head (Sylvester Stallone, Jason Momoa) - What did I watch...? It wasn't bad, but it is a Stallone film. Basically a bad guy and a good guy get together to defeat a badder guy. Really, is there anything else to say? It's subpar. Grade: C-

42 (Chadwick Boseman) - My main impression of this film is...It's the baseball equivalent of Remember the Titans. It's feel-good, decent story, decent acting, and gives you a happy feeling when you finish watching it. Wasn't a bad movie. Not the most "action" packed or even riveting film, but it was decent and, in a subpar year for me, it stood out for being better than the average. Grade: B

The Company You Keep (Robert Redford, Shia LaBeouf) - Redford and LaBeouf...What an odd pair. Not a bad film, but definitely lacks in something...Story...? Directing...? Not sure. Chris and I chuckled because Big Sur makes an appearance because it's a location for drug smuggling. The story has a somewhat quasi "mystery" in it from these radicals (Redford) while the news reporter (LaBeouf) tries to fish out the history and mysteries, but it's just...not that interesting? Definitely a forgettable movie (I wouldn't even remember the movie if it wasn't for remembering the actors). Grade: C

The Big Wedding (Robert DeNiro, Diane Keaton, Susan Sarandon, etc) - Rom-com that's almost more drama than rom-com. It's more reminiscent of It's Complicated or Something's Gotta Give (e.g., the story is more about the older actors than the younger ones). Unfortunately, it's not as funny or endearing as Something's Gotta Give. The story gets bogged down by the triangle and everyone's personal issues. It's not bad, but it's definitely not as good as it could have been given the cast. Grade: C

Kick-Ass 2 (Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Chloe Grace Moretz, Christopher Mintz-Plasse) - Not as good as the first one. It's more violent than the first, but it's not like "overly violent," I guess. I don't know. It's just not as good as the first one. I was disappointed in it. Grade: C

Emperor (Matthew Fox, Tommy Lee Jones) - I need to check the historical accuracy of the movie, but I didn't think it was that bad. The love story for Fox was a little cumbersome, but I got why they did it too. I thought Jones was a good MacArthur. It is an interesting period of history that you don't hear a lot. I don't think I realized how tenuous it was for the Emperor of Japan and being tried for war crimes or the implications it could have had. I didn't think it was too bad, but Fox's love story does bog it down. Grade: C+

Trance (James McAvoy, Vincent Cassel, Rosario Dawson) - I really liked this movie. The problem with it and the ability to recommend it to others is it deserves its rating (rated R). It eliminates most people I know who would want to see it and, as a psycho-thriller, it's a good psycho-thriller! It has a pretty violent scene (with a mostly gross violent part -- seeing someone's face shot off talking (part of the psycho-thriller part)) and there's a full frontal nude scene from the female. Granted, the nude scene is short and serves a purpose, but I don't think they had to write that entire plot point into the movie. Then again, it also tracks along to who McAvoy's character is (art dealer). Like I said, though, it didn't need to be in there, but it does make some sense (in the end -- back to the psycho-thriller part). At any rate, I like psycho-thrillers. They tend to be mind-bending and require the watcher's full attention and I like the twists. This one had TWISTS. I knew one twist, but I didn't know the 2nd one. I think if I had paid more attention, I would have figured out the major twist, but I wasn't watching as closely as I should have. It was interesting, though, and left a slightly open ending (kind of like Inception). Decent acting, decent script, but it's not entirely original either... Just a shame it's really rated R. Grade: B/B-

Amour (Jean-Lous Trintignant, Emmanuelle Riva) - FINALLY got to watch this! It's been months since the Oscars. It's a slow movie and the captions don't help either in making the movie speed up, but it is so heart-wrenching and endearing...It's such a touching story of love, commitment, and responsibility. If it doesn't pull your heart strings, you're heartless. It is rather depressing, though. Chris kept saying, "Why are you watching this? It's depressing." It's depressing, but tender too. The ending is kind of up for debate on whether you agree or not, but you also can see why he did what he did. In his mind, it was an act of love, respect, and mercy. Grade: B+/A-

Pain and Gain (Mark Wahlberg, Dwayne Johsnon, Anthony Mackie) - Crime comedy...? Dramedy? Something along those lines...The movie is both "serious" as it's based off a true story, but also pokes fun at itself the whole way through. The weirdest thing for me was seeing Whalberg so ripped...Weird. It's well acted, but it's silly so you can't take it serious. At the end of it, you just went, "Are those people really that dumb?!" Yeah...Wouldn't recommend for most people. Grade: C

Oblivion (Tom Cruise, Morgan Freeman, Olga Kurylenko) - I'm not sure if I really liked this movie or not. I did guess most of the "twists" in it. It was entertaining. I'm not a huge Cruise fan, but it worked. Good special effects. Good acting. Okay script/story. Eh. It was kind of what I expected. Grade: C+/B-

The Place Beyond the Pines (Ryan Gosling, Eva Mendes, Bradley Cooper) - Kind of a tedious script as it spans 2 generations and tried to get across I think too many points, but I don't think it was too bad. If anything, it's an interesting look at what our consequences can do for years down the road (the main point I took away). Not bad. Not great. Good acting, though, I think Gosling tends to pick his films pretty well. Grade: C+

Well...With that...I'm up to 72 watched movies for the year! 28 more to make 100 and 16-ish weeks left of the year. Hm. We'll see! I've got 4 movies I want to see that are coming to RedBox this coming week. After that, we'll see. It'll depend a lot on when summer movies come out. I'm also reading a lot again. Still haven't read anything that says instantly "new love!," but you never know...

Well...I'm late to THIS party...

I knew years ago that Xanga was a gamble to keep blogging on when blogging took its nosedive and Blogger and Wordpress emerged. Either of them were a solid choice, but I was being stubborn since I've been on Xanga since my high school days (Sept 20, 2003 was my first post) and far before either ever became popular. Consistency, right? Well, Xanga has converted to Xanga 2.0 and though I could keep blogging there, I'd have to sign-up for Premium (only $48 for a year), but I figure I'll start migrating myself somewhere else.

At first, I thought my posts were lost to time because I couldn't figure out how to get my XML files that Xanga (thank goodness!) very graciously had made available to me. (I was completely oblivious to the future Xanga change...Way to be observant, me!) Blogger wouldn't accept them and I couldn't get WordPress to accept them either. Turns out, I was doing it correctly on WordPress, but I just had to hit the account I wanted to use and I figured it was "optional" as I only had one account. Apparently not! After some research, I tried again and I got them to upload! Yay! After I uploaded all the files to WordPress, I could export the blog and use a converting program to get them to upload to Blogger. Yay! So, though I haven't posted on Blogger in absolutely years (my first Blogger post is now mixed in with all my old Xanga ones, but I think it was posted in 2007), I have ALL my old blog posts (and pictures) here! Technology...How I love thee. I wasn't so sad to lose the past 9 years of blogs, but I was sad to lose 2013's posts. I can't say it enough. I'm very thankful Xanga exported all my files for me and WordPress is so accommodating. I do still miss my Xanga site and feel bad I wasn't able to give a "I'm moving!" post, but I was totally oblivious to the whole situation! Perhaps one day I'll do the Premium account just to support it. It is my childhood!

With that said, I'm still undecided which platform I want to use. I've got the blog here and also the blog at wordpress (mjk1221.wordpress.com). At this point, I'll be using Blogger because I like the customization it allows, but I like the ease-of-use wordpress provides and its transferability to more platforms and future endeavors (if those occur). We'll see. I have a feeling I'll just stick to Blogger since it's all Google uniform (Google's slowly taking over the digital world!).

I do have a major movie update I need to do and need to complete at least one "My Life..." post! I've started two of them and then I got busy and then the whole Xanga thing happened and I think I spent a good two weeks going, "What is going on?" before I decided to look into it. Movie update will happen first. I just need to get back into the idea of blogging. I'm a little sad, I suppose. Oh well. What are you going to do?