Wordless Wednesday

it's not short weather

On Sunday after church I put on a pair of my shorts. It was not warm enough to wear shorts. Off they went and back in pajamas. I know, pajamas at noon seem like defeat, but most Sundays defeat me. For about week or two I've been itching to wear shorts. I'm ready to turn the heat off in the house and open the windows and have it be hot. Winter never came, but I'm already sick of wearing pants. I've stopped wearing pants to work already. Yeah, I wore them for like two months, when it was below freezing at three am. Now I'm back in shorts at work and it feels a ton better than pants.

Today I decide that 57 degrees is warm enough for shorts. I'm also wearing a hoodie, but that doesn't matter. My caves are so happy. They don't like being stuck in those confining pants. They like the feel of fresh air on them. I wish it really was short weather, I know I'll be back in pants soon. Spring doesn't allow for shorts everyday.

The funny thing is by September I'll be sick of shorts. I always am. I'll totally be ready for pants and it'll still be like 70 to 80 degrees outside. I'm always ready for the next season to begin.

television part 3 drama or sci-fi?

I don't watch a ton of dramas. I feel like my life has way to much drama going on in my life. Which I have to admit isn't as much as people on TV. Then I start to think about it and I watch a bit of shows that might be classified as dramas. I really enjoy sci-fi shows. I remember watch Star Trek: the Next Generation as a kid. I remember having to go to bed before Voyager would come on. Since then I've continued to watch sci-fi. Although there is a lot of bad sci-fi out there and still a lot I want to see. Let's get started.

1. Babylon 5 - This is one of my all time favorite sci-fi shows, I own all five seasons on DVD. This is also a drama in my opinion. It deals with politics and xenophobia. Each season is a large story with each episode in the season building upon each other to weave a complex story. Then The five seasons make for an over arching story. If anything this show is epic. The human race has just come out of a war they should not have won. In fact the only reason they won was because the Minbari stopped fighting right before they hit earth. Now the five large alien races and a league of smaller alien races met on Babylon 5 (a space station) to work out their arguments. Allies are made and lost. Plots to take over earth's government and other governments take place. The show sometimes looks at the large scope of things, but never forgets it's characters in the process. If you've never seen this show you are missing out. The graphics are a little bad in the beginning, but that because they were developing them. Without this show all the computer CGI out there might still be way behind. They pioneered most of the space CGI used out there today. My favorite episode from this show is in season 5, The Corps is Mother, the Corps is Father. In this episode Walter Koeing (Pavel Chekov) plays his reoccurring role as Bester from the Psi Corps. He's usually the bad guy in the show but in this episode is all in his perspective. You see a conflicted villain just trying his hardest to do what he think is right. A show worth watching.

2. Firefly - Joss Whedon's space western with Nathan Fillon in it. I watched one or two episodes when it first aired, but they were hard to catch. They played on Friday nights, which is almost always the kiss of death for TV shows. The show was also shown out of order which can be confusing since it builds on itself. There was only one season, but the DVD sells were good enough to have a move made, Serenity. I love this show. Captain Mal fighting the Alliance by being a smuggler. Mal is cooler than Han Solo and has a better crew. They even have zombies roaming out on the fringes of known space. Okay they're not real zombies but they do eat people. This is a must watch for anyone who says they enjoy sci-fi. I've watched it a quite a few times. My favorite episode is Jaynestown. I love Jayne Cobb (Adam Baldwin), he's a dirty mercenary.

3. Fringe - If you're not watching Fringe, what is wrong with you? This show is so awesome and crazy at the same time. During the first half of the first season I thought it was just going to be new X-Files show. I was so wrong. Fringe is an amazing sci-fi show. You have so much more than investigating strange things and aliens. At first I though the show was going to be about aliens only to find out it was about alternate dimensions! Plus Peter Bishop is awesome and Leonard Nimoy makes appearances in the second season. This show also has so much drama in it. One of my favorite episodes is from the first season, The Dreamscape. The opening scene with the butterflies will scar you. You'll never want to be around butterflies again. This show is a must watch show.

4. Misfits - British juvenile delinquents that get superpowers. That alone should totally sell the series. Main thing they do is kill people. The first kill was by accident, they were protecting themselves from a person that went insane. The thing is these kids weren't the only ones to get powers. There was this big storm and a lot of people got odd powers. The show really focuses more on the problems with having these powers. They think they have to find them at first. Then they think they need to tell people about them, but trouble just keeps happening. This show has very few episodes per season. The episodes that do exist are awesome. You are getting their A game for each episode. It's hard to pin just one episode as my favorite, but right now I would say that Hitler episode is one of my favorites. I love a goo time travel alternate reality show. So this show is awesome, but it is British and it's an R-rated TV show. Lots of language and violence and a little nudity.

5. Grimm (supernatural) - This is a new show on Friday nights's on NBC. The first couple episodes were pretty bland and like what ever, then the show kicked it up. I've been slowly hooked into this show. It's about this cop who is related to the Grim Brothers. Now the Grimm brothers did more than learn the stories of the old world, they also hunted monsters. The show is filled with these monsters that hide themselves as humans. The Grimms are a line of people that can actually see them for their true colors when they loose control of their emotions. Regular humans have a harder time with this. The thing is not all monsters are bad. Nick (the main character) is a cop in Portland who's Aunt tells him about his gift. The Aunt is ruthless and kills all the monsters she can. Nick doesn't follow this path. He wants to think that everyone can coexists. My favorite character in the story is Monroe. He's a bultbad or wolf type monster. He's turned his way against eating meat and works on clocks. Clocks of any size. The show is awesome. My favortie episode so far would be Danse Macabre. It's about the piped piper. Pretty awesome.

6. Battlestar Galatica - What can I say about this show. You either love it or hate it. Everyone I've talk to about the show have very strong feelings. I for one liked the show. It has space battles, politics, robots, and the human race fighting to survive. Although sometimes the show feels slow and drags on. It's one of those shows you can watch once and then step away for a few years and watch again, but you need time off from it to breath. There is so much drama in this show. It deals with spies inside the community to religion trying to rule everything. It can be a little to intense at times. Plus no one is safe from being killed or becoming the villain in the show. I don't really have a favorite episode for this show. The whole show kind of melts into itself and you can't really define where one episode ends and the next one begins. That's how it is in my head.

7. Stargate Series - I can't limit this to just one show. Stargate is a large universe of shows. You have SG-1, Atlantis, and Universe. All three shows have good things and bad things about them. SG-1 was the first show based off the movie. This show follows the leading team from the stargate project across it's many adventures to save earth and make new friends. A lot of the episodes are fun to watch. Sometimes it gets campy, but all and all it's fun. Atlantis is the series I've seen the least amount off. A new team finds a stargate address to a fare away planet. They go and get stuck there. They learn that it's the mystical city Atlantis. They fight bad guys and have crazy adventures like SG-1, but in a different galaxy than ours. Stargate Universe never got enough love. The first season was decent, but trying to find it's own feet. The second season found it's voice and was well done. Stargate Universe is about a human base that gets attack on a distance planet from earth. They have to take the stargate to a mystery location. They end up on a starship many galaxies away from ours with no way home. All and all the show is decent for a franchise and deserves a watch for sci-fi fans.

8. Doctor Who - This is a new addiction of mine. I remember seeing an episode from season one and season two on sci-fi. I didn't watch the entire episodes and was very confused. They were quite campy, but not in a bad way. I put Doctor Who on the back burner thinking this show is to weird for me. Cut to last year and Allison saying all her friends liked the show. She wanted to watch it and I was like okay, but I'm not promising it'll be good. I don't know how I could be so wrong. I've seen the first three seasons and can't wait to get into the fourth. It can be very addictive. The Doctor is such a compelling character. He sucks you in. Plus he flies around in time and space in a little police call box. So far I've learned two very important things from Doctor Who, 1. Don't Blink 2. Never look in the corner of your eyes. My favorite episode so far is Blink from season three. It's about these weeping angel statues that kill. It's so good. If you like fun sci-fi this is so your show. It can be over the top sometimes, but it so well done over the top. I could totally live in the Doctor's world.

9. Dead Like Me (supernatural) - This show was on was on Showtime, so I had to watch it on DVD. It's so good I own the two seasons on DVD. What happens to us after we die? We go somewhere, but where? This question is not answered at all in Dead Like Me. No, instead we get to learn about the undead, the reapers. The people who take our souls from our body and show us the way to where we are going. You would be surprised how much they are just like us. How they are trying to deal with the afterlife just like we are dealing with our lives. The show is awesome and very dramatic.

10. Star Trek Series - Can you really talk about sci-fi and not include Star Trek? I love Star Trek. I enjoy all the TV series. I've been watching Deep Space Nine recently and realized it was way better then I remembered it. If you don't know about Star Trek than I'm surprised you read this blog at all. Everyone has their favorite characters and series in Star Trek. I love Data and Geordi Laforge. Just get a series and watch it. Sometimes they might be campy, but that's sci-fi for you.

I hope you enjoyed my look at dramas today. I know I really only looked at sci-fi dramas, but I don't really like most dramas. They seem silly to me. Why do I need more drama in my life, especially if it doesn't have spaceships or alternate realities. What are some of your favorite sci-fi or drama shows?

what time is it

The other night I woke up in the middle of the night. It was 10:45 pm when I woke up. I had been down almost three hours by that time. It was dark in my bedroom and I was really confused. Allison was sleeping next to me which is a good sign. I looked at the clock thinking it must almost be time to get up. When I looked at it I thought it said 1:45 am. I couldn't decide to get up or not. I only had another half hour till my alarm went off. So I got up and looked at my phone. It said 10:45 too, but I still couldn't register it my head. So I went out to the living room and then into the kitchen. When the kitchen clocks said 10:45 I finally realized I was up way to early. So I went to the bathroom and crawled back into bed with Allison. I was scared I wouldn't fall asleep, but I was out in a heart beat.

I was so thankful for the extra four hours of sleep my body thought it got. Life can't get better than realizing you still have a couple hours to sleep till you have to get up.

television part 2 bret harrison

In television there are a lot of cult favorite shows like Firefly or Arrested Development. They are amazing shows that get canceled before there time and people are always trying to get them back on the air. For me I have a cult actor that I have to follow which most of his shows have a cult following or just a poor following. Bret Harrison is one of my favorite TV actors.

Now I don't follow this guy because is only two days older than me, but that would be a good reason. No I follow him cause this boy makes me laugh in all his shows. The first time I remember seeing him and being like that kid is funny is in Grounded for Life. He was the corky neighbor that was in love with the daughter of the main family. He reminded me of Steve Urkil. He wasn't smart though. He was a fool most of the time. The fool that bought my love.

The next time I saw brad in a show it was The Loop season two. The second season was amazing in my head. This young guy is a VP at an airline and has to deal with all these issues the airlines are going through. The boss sees him as computer that remember everything. Bret trying to juggle having a life and being a VP at an airline. Always funny always good. I later bought season one which was a bit different. He had these two girl roommates. They totally changed the vibe of the show. Plus one of them was a love interest for Brad, but she had a boyfriend so he could never win her over. The second season was way better than the first. I wish they had put that season on DVD, but they haven't yet. You can watch both seasons on Hulu though.

After the Loop ended I was a little sad, but something amazing came out of the lose. Reaper started. I'm sorry to say I only watched the first season of this show. The main reason for only one season of watch was because I lived on my own and I didn't have cable or internet at my apartment. I would watch season one at work. This show was a mix of comedy and drama. I felt that it was an amazing mix. Reaper was about how Bret's parents sold his soul to the devil and he had to be a reaper for him. Now he didn't reap people, he reaped escaped souls from hell. Plus the devil was Ray Wise. Now when ever I see Ray Wise I'm like there's the devil! I want to watch the second season eventually. I want to know what happened to Sam (Bret) and his relationship with his family and the devil.

After that Bret was on V. I watched the first season of this show, but Bret was on the second. I'll probably not watch it because it was never on Hulu and he wasn't the main character. Plus the new V wasn't that good at all. It makes me sad that he has been on so many shows that only get two seasons. Let's hope that his newest shoe won't be like.

Last year Bret stared in a new show, Breaking In. This was a spring release which always has an uphill battle. The studios don't put out what they think will be amazing shows in the spring. I was a little scared for this show. It was being anchored with Christen Slater which was a star in the 90's. Slater already had a show fail that he was suppose to be an anchor for a few years back. I think this time around making him a supporting character was the better move. The show is pretty funny. It's about this security company that goes in and breaks into your business to show you where you need to be upgraded. Tons of hi-jinks. You can't have a great show without hi-jinks. Brad once again is in love with one of his co-workers who has a boyfriend. It seems like in most comedies that is the case. the main character has to overcome an "evil" boyfriend to win the girl. After the show didn't have a fall release date I figured it was canceled, but not the case. Breaking In will be back in a week or two. It's having a spring release again. This is odd, but I don't mind. I think this could be a good new trend. Give under preforming shows half seasons like a lot of shows do in Britain. This gives the network a little more wiggle room with whats on air. Plus I love seeing Bret Harrison on my TV (okay my computer screen).

So if you're looking for a cult actor, choose my main squeeze Bret Harrison. You'll get some great comedy and a little drama. What more could you want?

Here's a little short film with Bret Harrison and Brandon Roth. The video is pretty funny if you like horror games or horror movies. Although it's not safe for work. Brandon Roth has a potty mouth on him. Still funny look at a genre.

COST OF LIVING from BenDavid Grabinski on Vimeo.

television part 1 the comedies

I love television. I love stories. I love getting lost in a reality that is way funnier than the one I live in. There is almost nothing greater than a good comedy. A comedy that sucks you in and you need "just one more." I was talking to my sister the other day and we were talking about shows that everyone needs to see. Funny thing is I watch a ton more TV than most people. I also watch a ton more comedies than anyone else I know. I was telling her some shows to watch and she was like make a list. Sure I could have made a list and just sent it to her, but this is so much more fun. So let's get started with the comedies.

Best British Comedy: The IT Crowd

The IT Crowd kills me every time. Roy, Moss, and Jen have some crazy adventures working for the IT department. Imagine if you were watching a bunch of nerds fixing computers. Okay now imagine them funny. Good, now throw that all out, because this show is way funnier than that. The IT Crowd is the reason computer jokes work. "I have it on good authority that if you type google into google you will break the internet." I would give this show five stars out of five every time. The one problem with the show is the lack of episodes. Each series (season) is only six episodes long. I love this show and could watch it all the time. Luckily there are four seasons out to watch right now. I'm still trying to get season four. I hear it's on Netflicks, but I don't own netflicks. Once again this show is the bomb.

Best New Comedy of season: The New Girl or Up All Night or 2 Broke Girls

This one is a hard one. A lot of decent comedies come out this year and I would say three good comedies hit the airwaves. The New Girl has Zooey Deschanel, you know the girl from (500) Days of Summer. The show is about Jess (Zooey) dealing with breaking up with her boyfriend and moving in with three guys she just met. So far it has a ton of quirkiness which is what you want from Zooey. The first couple of episodes fall flat, but after three or four you will be hooked. Justin Long shows up for awhile as Jess's love interest, now those two together is awesome. Plus the three guys aren't just backdrops, they are all have decently fleshed out characters. The guys have there own stories and grow as characters. Great stuff. Up All Night, what can I say other than a cute Mr. Mom TV show. Christina Applegate and Will Arnett are amazing. Plus if you know me, anything Will Arnett does is pure gold to me. So if you're not on the Gob train than you shouldn't even be talking to me. The last show is 2 Broke Girls. I watch the fist half of the season on CBS.com. With the new year they decide to no longer stream the shows on their site. The show was awesome. At least the first half. I hate cbs for how they don't put their shows on Hulu. Their streaming system sucks. The show was fun, to bad I only saw half a season.

Best New Friends Show: Happy Endings

I love Happy Endings. I call it the best new Friends show because it's about friends, like the show friends. If you like friends you'll like this show. The only thing is this show is about 200 times smarter than friends. Okay maybe 300 times better. Last spring when this show came out there was three shows fighting for this spot. Oddly all of them took place in Chicago too. Only one made it to season two, the best ABC comedy right now. The show starts with a wedding that doesn't happen. Then we get tons of great hi-jinks and rules for keeping the gang together after the a horrible accident. Pretty much when I watch this show I always think about friends and how they could have been so much more if they had just pushed it to the next step and been more than a situational comedy. Did we really need ten years of will Ross get with Rachel? No we didn't. Luckily here no one is pinning after one another. You've got a married couple, a gay guy, a drama queen, a v-neck addict, and the little bit slower girl. Plus one of the guys runs a food truck. The best part is they hate hipsters, while kind of being hipsters themselves. It's pure awesomeness.

Okay those are some of the best comedies on TV right now. There are other great comedies to watch to. Here a list of awesome comedies that on there own would be worth it:

• Raising Hope - 4 out of 5 stars
• The Office - 4 out of 5 stars
• Parks and Recreation - 5 out of 5 stars
• 30 Rock (although the first two seasons are the best) 3 out of 5 stars
• Community (where are you right now?) 4 out of 5 stars
• Modern Family 3.5 out of 5 stars
• The League 4 out of 5 stars (not for everyone)
• How I Met Your Mother 5 out of 5 stars
• Breaking In (coming back for a second season!) 3.5 out 5 stars
• Extras (British comedy 2 series and a special) 4 out of 5 Stars
• Arrested Development (3 Seasons) 5 out of 5 Stars
• M.A.S.H. (come on I love that show) 3.5 out of 5 stars
• Doggie Howser MD (you got to love Neil Patrick Harris) 3 out of 5 stars

So many good shows to watch. I'll be talking about other genres later on. Os be sure to check back. I haven't even talked about Misfits yet. That's a show. What are some of your favorite comedies? Maybe I'll watch them or maybe I already love them.

Wordless Wednesday

overboard

Sometimes I go overboard when I get excited about a project. This week I made a micro-comic. I got the idea while I was at work. I hadn't worked on any physical comic project so I decide to make a micro-comic about a president. I love presidents. I decided to do one on Grover Cleveland. The main reason was because Grover Cleveland shared a name with the Sesame Street Muppet Grover. I figured I could make a funny joke about people confusing him with Grover. Then I thought of a second thing. I could talk about the city of Cleveland. I wasn't sure if Cleveland was named after Grover Cleveland, but I could look that up after I got off work. The hardest part was keeping all the ideas in my mind till I got off work. I have this problem where I can forget things between work and coming home. I have brain problem with that. I usually just want to forget everything I do at work so I can go back the next day without thinking about driving my car into a wall at full speed. Back to the comic, I got home and did some research on Grover Cleveland. I had done some a last year and then a couple years ago for a couple of comics I've already made about him. Made the comic and it was awesome.


The next day I decide to do something else. I decide to something I haven't done for ever. I went to Kinko's and photo copied the micro-comic. I made fifty copies of the Grover Cleveland micro-comic!!! I've never made a print run of fifty comics. Even when I had people asking for copies of my mini-comics, I made at the most fifteen copies. So I went a little overboard on the micro-comic. Now I have all these comics about Grover Cleveland and have to find place to unload them. I really don't think it'll be to hard. I'm not going to ask for money for them. It only cost me five dollars to make fifty copies. If anyone wants a copy or like five copies to give to your friends, let me know. It only cost a stamp for me to send them in the mail. They're really cool, but I'm not going to send any out if you don't ask me for them. I don't want to just send them and people be like what is this and throw it away. I put a lot of effort into making these comics and I kind of love them. I do want people reading them though. That's what I've been up to this week.

Wordless Wednesday