Readership for my Blog

Blog readership various from blog to blog, I assume it has to do with topic or time of posting but some blog posts will get 1000 hits while others barely get 10 hits. I haven't figured out a pattern but most of my blog posts get about 50 hits and I was wondering who was reading my blogs. So I created these polls. If you could please answer both of these questions, I would really appreciate it.

Readership for my Blog, I read...

Every blog post

Majority of the blog posts

Some of the blog posts

Only those that interest me

poll generator

Who is Reading My Blog

I'm a Friend

I'm an Online Friend

I don't know you but enjoy your blog

Poll Maker

De-Christmasing & Eureka Re-watch

I spent a good part of the day De-Christmasing my apartment. It's always a sad day when I start to take down all my Christmas decorations. But on a happy note in 11 months they all go back up again. :)

I did a mini re-watch of Eureka. I found out that Eureka is on Netflix.. well the last two seasons (4 & 5). I watched all of Eureka and loved it but haven't watched since it first originally aired. I figured I'd put that on in the background as I took down my Christmas stuff.. well that was a mistake. I forgot how much I loved Eureka, especially the final few seasons so I pretty much sat and watched season 4 episodes 1 - 15, back to back to back. I finally pulled myself away from it so I could actually finish taking down the rest of the Christmas stuff.

A Day of Netflix, Dramas & Comedies

So I've been at this apartment for one year. It was one of the best decisions that I made in recent years, to move to this neighborhood and apartment. With several good friends around, walking distance to food, shops and the red line, it's ideal. I love living across from the park as it makes going on my morning jogs so much more easier which ensures that I do them every morning. Now that my lease is up I have to wait and see if my rent will increase (which I expect it to) but hopefully by not to much.

Today was a Netflix day... I love my Netflix as it's opened my world up to a ton of new "gay" themed movies that I wouldn't otherwise see, but I've come to find out that a lot of the "gay" themed movies aren't that great or they show the gay culture as drug and sex obsessed, which a segment of it is, but it's not what I want to see all the time. Over the past year I have watched about thirty pretty amazing "gay" themed movies (which I have blogged about) but it seems that I'm having a harder time finding "happy" movies theses day. Lots of dramas which I'm sure are good but I have to be in a really good place to watch a hardcore drama. But the movie I started with today didn't sound to dramatic...

Angels of Sex: The established relationship between university student Bruno and aspiring photographer Carla is thrown into turmoil when Bruno feels drawn to sexy karate instructor/break dancer Rai. Complications ensue.

This movie is from Spain and is in Spanish so it's subtitled and the subtitles were so fast that I missed half of the dialogue. It annoyed me at times as I couldn't really watch the actors as I had to focus on the subtitles to see what they were saying before they were gone.

But overall I enjoyed this movie as you don't see many movie about open relationships, threesomes, and bisexuality. It shows how complicated relationships can be. It also shows you how all three sides to this relationship deal with it. For me personally I'd never be in an open or a threesome relationship, but it was a interesting look at another aspect on a variation of relationships.

After this drama I wanted a bit of fun to so I watched one of my favorite comedies of the 80's Troop Beverly Hills: Phyllis Nefler, a soon to be divorced Beverly Hills society wife is determined to prove to her husband Freddy and herself that she can finish what she starts out to do. She soon realizes that being a Wilderness Girls' den mother to a troop of Beverly Hills-bred girls is not as easy as buying cookies.

I love this movie and I'm so happy that it's finally on Netflix. It's one of Shelly Longs best movies (IMO). Funny, caring, heartwarming and wacky at times.. the perfect movie to make you laugh out loud.

I then decided to watch one of the more "heavy" drama gay themed movies called Priest. It was highly recommended with 4 1/2 stars out of 5 on Netflix. Priest: The Rev. Greg Pilkington is homosexual and a Roman Catholic priest who takes his vows and his love of God seriously. When a young girl confesses to him that her father has been sexually abusing her, Pilkington is overcome with protective rage and feels that he must break the secrecy rules binding the confessional in order to stop the abuse. As the case haunts him, Pilkington is forced to confront the transgression of his lack of celibacy through sex with other men.

This movie was exactly what I had expected.. drama, drama, drama. On the lighter side it was fun to see a younger Robert Carlyle (Rumpelstiltskin from Once Upon A Time) playing the Priests lover, though it was interesting seeing him naked. Even with the movie being uber dramatic I did enjoy it, and it was extremely painful to see what this poor man had to endure.

After that depressing movie I wanted to watch something lighthearted. I came across Bedroom and Hallways and I remember seeing this movie and liking it but it's been a while so I figured I'd give it another go. Bedroom and Hallways: At the suggestion of a straight friend, gay man Leo joins a men's group and is delighted to find hunky, straight Brendan who is coming to grips with his bisexuality and becomes his lover. Things turn ugly as it turns out Brendan's girlfriend is Leo's school ex and still able to seduce him.

I enjoyed this movie even more the second time round. Again like with Angels of Sex this movie deals with bisexuality but in a more comedic way. I enjoyed the characters and the story and I kept trying to figure out where I had seen the actor who played Brendan (James Purefoy) as I find him very cute.. he actually played the Prince in A Knights Tale... so that was cool.

Overall a good day of Netflix viewing.. some heavy dramas mixed with some fun comedies. 

The Year That Was - 2014

I've been debating on weather 2014 was a good year or a bad year overall. Of course I had ups and downs like we all do but my downs were extreme downs and my ups are really high ups. I'll list my good and bad things and see which comes out on top.

Let's start with good in 2014:

• I moved into my new apartment in North Hollywood blocks from many of my close friends.
• Met someone online and hit it off, possible boyfriend?
• Said person visited for a week, had a great time, only issue he lives in Portland
• Went on my Dream Vacation to Ireland and the UK for a month. Got to meet several "online" friends who were amazing and wish I lived closer to them so we could hang out more often. (Matt, Erlend, Bel, Daniel, Simon, Phil, Russ & Markus)
• I got to enjoy Wondercon
• I visited Disneyland about 15 times through out the year
• Discovered several amazing TV shows, that weren't on my radar to watch. Call the Midwife (Thanks Jes via America), Looking, Please Like Me.
• I got to spend some quality time with friends who came from over seas (Lydia & Thomas)
• I attended San Diego Comic Con
• Got some amazing movie this year, Guardians of the Galaxy, The Imitation Game to name a few.
• Got my fourth geeky tattoo
• Some really good TV this year, Scorpion, Agents of SHIELD, Arrow, Flash, Gotham, Big Bang Theory, 
• Got to play more D&D (Thanks Dallas for always making it fun and entertaining)
• Marriage equality has become mainstream, we are currently up to 35 state were gay couple can legal marry.
• My family & friends are healthy

Now for the bad in 2014:

• My continued weight issues, high as 217
• Being diagnosed as pre-diebatic.
• Distancing friendships
• My continued fight with depression. I was at my lowest this year in a long time. Was very difficult to pull myself out of it... it's a continuing fight.
• I only worked five weeks this year
• Lack of work has meant huge credit card debt, gotta charge to survive.
• Stress from all this effects my health even more
• Still single and lonely, haven't had a date in many years
• Lost my friend Craig this year... I miss him.

Though my "bad" list is shorter then my "good" list I think the things on my bad list effect me more, ie my health and my finances. So I'm gonna say 2014 wasn't a good year for me. Though it had some amazing things in it, overall it was a very tough year to get through.

So what do I hope for 2015... well I got all the bad out of the way and I'm due for some good. In 2015 I'll find a great job (that lasts a while) and a great guy that I can see spending he rest of my life with. With a job I can get my financials woes in order and I've already started working on bettering my health towards the end of 2014 so I'll continue to move forward with that. I'm going to make a better effort to strength the friendships that I deem worthy and let go of the ones that no longer work. Gonna stop worry about what people think of me and just be the best me I can be.

I'm gonna grow Geekyfanboy Productions with more podcasts, video blogs and series. I know there will be set backs as I continue to struggle with my depression but I will overcome these obstacles and continue to fight the good fight. 2015 is a year of change and I'm ready for the challenge.

My New Years Eve

UPDATE: The antibiotics are kicking in and my face is starting to deflate a bit. It's also helping with the pain and I'm not popping Advil like they are candy anymore.. so yay. Still feeling pretty icky so no New Years Eve plans for me, which is a bummer but on the upside I got to Skype with my buddy Erik and celebrate the New Year with him (well the east coast & central time zones). I was in bed by 11 so I didn't actually make it to midnight here on the west coast. It's not how I wanted to start 2015 but whatcha gonna do, such is life. I hope you all had some fun for me.

Urgent Care Visit

This isn't the best way to end this year but since it's been a pretty crappy year I guess I shouldn't have expected anything better. I've had a tooth ache the past few days. I have bad teeth so I get pain here and there from time to time and it normally goes away. Well this morning I woke up and the left side of my face was swollen. It was like I had a golf ball in my cheek. It's obvious that the tooth is infected and that I'll have to go to a dentist ASAP.

Well I called ten different dentist since I don't have one and every place I called is closed for the holidays and won't be open until January 5th. I did find one dentist open, Western Dentist, but they don't take emergency cases. Things were getting frustrated as I was in pain and I knew this golf ball size infection was going to get bigger and bigger if I didn't do anything about it.

So I finally opted to go to a local Urgent Care, I figured I could go to a doctor and probably get antibiotics from them. Sure enough they were able to see me and the PA checked out the tooth and indeed it is infected so she gave me a prescription for 10 days worth of antibiotics.

The infection is actually causing a fever and making me feel not so great. I'm bummed as it's going to ruin any plans I had for New Years and it's not how I wanted to bring in 2015... but such is life.

Recording a Harry Potter Podcast

Today I recorded a podcast for Treks in Scifi Podcast. Rico (the owner of that podcast) and I have been trying to get together to record a podcast on the Harry Potter movies and books. We've been talking about it for over a year so we finally booked some time and today is the day.

The recording went really well.. Rico and I work and I have some fun chemistry, we discussed the first book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's/Sorcerer's Stone for about 30 minutes before moving on to the movie and talking for another hour. We plan to do each book and movie, one every few months. All I have to do now is edit it together and send it off to Rico so he can post in his podcast feed, If all goes well it should be released January 18th.

Please Like Me S2 - My Review

Today I got to enjoy the second season of Please Like Me. It picks up one year later, Josh's dad has a new daughter, Geoffry is out of the picture, Josh and Tom have a new and cute (also gay) roommate who Josh has a crush on. Josh's mom is in a mental hospital after a third suicide attempt and we meet several new characters there.

Josh meets a new love interest who is also a patient at the mental hospital, his name is Arnold and he's my favorite character now. He has extreme anxiety and low self esteem. Every time he's on screen I just want to hug him and tell him everything is going to be okay. I was so happy when Josh and him finally hooked up at the end of this season. I hope this storyline continues into season three.

I wasn't a fan of Tom's storyline, he's become a pot smoking loser and not very likable.  I've been really liking the new storylines from the mental hospital with Hanna, Ginger, Rose (Josh's mom) and Arnold.

Season two continues to build the relationships and characters. It's still quirky, a bit awkward, funny and serious. The characters seem much richer as we get to know them better over the season. There is an entire episode with just Josh and his Mom hiking through the bush talking... it's one of the more serious episodes.

I can't wait to watch both S1 & S2 again and I really can't wait to see Season 3 and see where these characters go.

Helping Friends Move

Today I spent the day helping my friends TJ & Denise move into their new apartment. Started around 9:00am, picked some breakfast before heading to the Uhaul to pick up his their truck and pack up the truck with the pod that they sent from the east coast. We then headed out to their storage unit about 20 miles away. Two other friends joined us there (Andrew and Mo) and we then started to unload their storage space. They intentionally had a 26' truck but though that it would be to large to maneuver in their new place so they opted for a 17' truck. This truck filled up fast and with half the storage unit packed in the truck they decided that there was no way we'd get this done in one move so we filled the truck and headed back to their apartment. We unloaded the truck and grabbed some lunch before heading back to pack up the rest of their stuff. For a moment I didn't think we'd get everything in this second trip but with some fancy packing we managed to get it all in and secure. We made out final trip back to their place and unloaded. We then had some tasty BBQ for dinner before calling it a night around 9pm

It was a long day of moving, I didn't expect it to last 12 hours but I was happy that I was able to help out my friends... building up some good karma :)

Please Like Me - My Review

Between Christmas Specials I was trying to catch up on my blogging and when I was blogging about HBO's Looking I went looking for pictures for the blog and found an ad for something called Please Like Me. It peaked my interest so I goggled it. Please Like Me is an Australian television comedy drama series starring Josh Thomas. The series premiered on 28 February 2013 on ABC2 in Australia.

Here's a synopsis for the first episode. As his 21st birthday approaches, Josh has an eventful 24 hours. First he is dumped by his girlfriend, which leads to his realization that he may be gay. After that shocker, he moves back into his family home to help care for his mother, who recently attempted suicide. With his life in disarray, big challenges await Josh in his immediate future, which is especially difficult for someone like him who has a natural aversion to drama and emotion. So he can deal with it all -- only in his own awkward, self-centered way.

I acquired all six episode from season one and watched them back to back to back, it does help that they are only 30 minute episodes. I was hooked with the first scene from the first episode. It's hard to put into words why I loved this series but something about it just clicked with me. It's quirky, bizarre, funny, sad, serious and honest all roll into a quick 30 minutes. It is a show with both awkward and relatable comedy that is realistic and natural. Maybe that's why I enjoy it so much as I don't feel like the actors were acting, it feels real, like we're bystanders just watching these people interact.

Another thing I really like about the show is the entertaining title credits and song, I just want to dance when I hear it. I liked Josh's (main characters) parents and their interaction with him and each other. 

There is already a season two (10 episodes) that came out in 2014 which I will be "acquiring" very soon and it was also picked up for third season (10 episodes) that will air sometime in 2015. 

I'm so happy I found this fun and unique dramedy. If you get a chance give it a watch. I can even upload the episodes to my FTP site where you can download both season 1 and 2 for your enjoyment, just let me know.

Christmas Specials: Downton Abbey, Call The Midwife & Doctor Who

Today I got to catch up on all the Christmas specials that aired yesterday.

(Downton Abbey S5 doesn't air here in the US until Jan, so be warned spoilers)

First up was Downton Abbey S5 Christmas Special. It's the early autumn of 1924 and Rose's father-in-law Lord Sinderby has rented Brancaster Castle in Northumberland and invited the Crawleys to a grouse-shooting party. However, the Sinderbys' butler Stowell has an axe to grind and a scandalous secret threatens to derail the holiday. Back at Downton, the servants hold the fort and unlikely later-life romances abound, while Bates takes drastic measures to clear Anna's name as she faces an uncertain future behind bars. The seasons change and another Christmas is enjoyed at the Abbey, where a heartbreaking farewell and a joyful reunion take place

I really enjoyed this Christmas special. This entire season has been pretty awesome. I wish that Bates and Anna can live happily every after. I liked the romantic possibilities for both Edith and Mary in this episode and it brought me to tears when Carson asked Mrs Hughes to marry him. It's been a long time coming. I'll be sad to see Branson go but I guess he can also come back since he's just going to the Chicago. I now have to wait until the Autumn of 2015 for the sixth season to begin... so far away!!

Next I watched Call the Midwife S3 Christmas Special. As the nurses prepare for their 1959 Christmas show Patsy and Chummy escort two pregnant teen-agers, confident Avril and nervous Denise, to a home for expectant mothers run by the unfeeling and drunken Sister Maltby. When Denise falls ill and is denied medical treatment Avril reports Maltby and Chummy and Patsy temporarily run the home, making huge improvements for the better with help from Avril, whose baby they deliver on Christmas Eve. Shelagh goes to the aid of down-trodden epileptic Victor when he has a fit in the market - which leads to the discovery that he and his girlfriend Nancy are living in squalor. Nancy, who believes she is pregnant, fears the baby will be taken from her on the discovery that she met Victor in a mental hospital, from which they have been released with no after-care, but Dr Turner and Cynthia realize that , due to operations carried out on her in the hospital, she can never conceive. They nonetheless encourage the couple to be strong and care for each other. With Christmas over Cynthia leaves to become a nun whilst Peter Noakes is promoted to sergeant. 

I've missed Call the Midwife and was really looking forward to this special. This was the first episode without the main lead character Jenny, who left the show at the end of season 3. What makes it strange is that we are seeing this world through her eyes as an older version of herself as the narrator so I was interested in seeing how they worked around that. I actually liked what they did. Vanessa Redgrave does the voiceover of the older Jenny so they opened and closed the episode with Vanessa playing the older Jenny on screen. It was nice way to keep Jenny around. I really enjoyed this episode but I've enjoyed all the episodes, they really know how to pull on the heart strings. Like with Downton Abbey I can't get enough of these amazing British series.

The final Christmas special that I watched was Doctor Who "The Last Christmas". The Doctor and Clara face their Last Christmas. Trapped on an Arctic base, under attack from terrifying creatures, who are you going to call? Santa Claus!

This was an interesting Doctor Who episode, more horror with a touch of Christmas. It reminded me of Alien and what it funny one of the characters in the show even makes a reference to Alien and Facehuggers. It was kind of like Who Inception. A dream within a dream within a dream. 

I was bummed to hear the rumor that Jenna (Clara) was leaving at the end of this Christmas special but as this aired news broke that she is definitely coming back for another season. Now I didn't enjoy Clara with Matt Smith's Doctor but I'm loving her with Peter Capaldi's Doctor and I look forward to many more adventures.

Christmas Day with Family

Merry Christmas... I spent the night at my brother's house last night so I could be there when the kiddos opened up their gifts. Kenobi was up at 7 and ready to open gifts but Molly was still sleeping and would be cranky if we woke her up so we opened our stockings.

Molly woke up around 8:30 and my mom and step-dad Chuck arrived around 9. We started opening gifts and it took a while as the kids got quite a bit. We finished around 11 and I started to make Christmas dinner.. Lora, Mike and the kids went over to Lora's brothers house to exchange gifts. While they were gone I was home alone so I decided to watch Guardians of the Galaxy. I've only seen it a few times at the movie so was looking forward to watching it.

I remember loving this movie but man I really enjoyed watching it again. It's definitely one of the best films of 2014.

Everyone was home around 3 and dinner was ready so we all enjoyed a very tasty Turkey dinner with all the trimmings.

When we were done with dinner we watched a screener that had brought, Big Hero Six. I had seen it but the family had not. It was so much fun watching this movie with Kenobi and Molly. They loved every minute of it. Laughed out loud many times and mimicked the characters.

When the movie was over I said my goodbye and headed home. Traffic was horrible and it took me nearly two hours to get home but I finally got home around 9pm and called it a night. I had a great time with the family this Christmas day.

Christmas Eve With Family

Going to spend Christmas day with my brother's family so I decided to head over to there place tonight so I can be there when my niece and nephew wake up Christmas morning. Another reason to go over the night before is I get to help be Santa. I help finish wrapping presents and then once they put the kids down to bed Lora, Michal and I start to bring down all of "Santa's" gifts. They really made out this year. My brother and sister-in-law are always very generous during the holidays. They know they spoil the kids but then can, so they do. The kids are still young Kenobi is age 5 and Molly age 3 but I'm sure as they get older they'll learn to appreciate their good fortune. We all went to bed around midnight and I predicted that they kids would be up around 7 but Mike and Lora said it would be later.. guess will find out tomorrow morning. Merry Christmas Eve you all...

An Unexpected Party

I had planned to head over to my brother's tonight and spend Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with them but around 3pm I got an unexpected invite to a last minute Christmas party. It was my friends America and Dove. I haven't seen these guys in a while (and it wasn't from a lack of trying to get together) so of course I was going to go.

It started at 7 and of course I got there at 7 and was the first to arrive. Besides America and Dove, I got to meet America's mother who was also visiting for the holidays. I'm glad I got there early as I got to catch up a bit with America and Dove before more guest arrived. Half hour after I arrived more guests started to arrive including my friends Jes and Eric. There was a total of about 12 people. We had some tasty foods, chatted and then played several rounds of Charades. The dinner party lasted until around midnight when we said our goodbyes, Dove lite another Chanukah candle and we headed home.

It was a fun night and I got to meet several very cool and interesting people, but then again I would expect America and Dove's friends to be awesome... and they were. Thanks guys for the invite.

Freedom to Marry - This Past Year

Saw this on Twitter and had to share with everyone. It's two maps of the United States one marked 2013 and the other 2014. Each one has indications of marriage equality per state. The 2013 map looks okay, especially since gay marriage wasn't even around 10 years ago and slowly but surely it started to spread across the states, but in 2014 the numbers of states have doubled in one year that's thanks to the Supreme Court ruling. We still have a good chuck of states in the middle that need to come out of the stone age and allow marriage equality for all but I have to say this past year has been an amazing year for the gay community.

Table Top Goodies, Hobbit Holes & Marvel Vs DC

Today I got some of my "perks" for donating to season three of Wil Wheaton's Table Top. I got S1 & 2 on DVD as well as a t-shirt, button, sticker, dice & Cards Against Humanity Table Top cards.

My friend Amy wrote this cool article about this amazing Hobbit hole that you could rent and if it wasn't in Thailand I'd go stay there from time to time. This is one of the best looking above ground "real" Hobbit holes that I've seen in a long while. You can read Amy's article HERE.

I came across this pretty cool fan made video for what would be a very epic movie Marvel Vs. DC. This is very well edited and I could imagine it would take quite a while to make.

Once Upon A Time & HBO's Looking

I was finally able to catch up on the current season of Once Upon a Time. I was about six episodes behind. I've been enjoying the "Frozen" theme they have been doing for the first half of this new season. I continued to enjoy the story up to it's conclusion. I liked the conclusion to the Snow Queen's storyline, in the end she redeems herself, I always felt bad for her as all she ever wanted was to be loved. I mean she went about getting it the wrong way, but still a sympathetic character. Unlike Rumple who is just evil. And I'm loving what they have done with Regina and her relationship with Emma.

There were a few things that bothered me but the biggest one was the fact that there is a door to Arendale (Frozen land) which is just a quick boat ride away from The Enchanted Forrest. If folks in Storybrooke want to go home then why can't they just walk through the door. But then again I don't even know if the folks in Storybrooke want to get back to the Enchanted Forrest.

The mid season finale lead us into the next storyline for the second half of the season titled Heroes Vs. Villains. I was a bit confused as we see Maleficent again (but this time the Angelina Jolie movie version) but in Season 1 & 2 we saw Maleficent and in season 2 she was stuck as a Dragon underneath Storybrooke and Emma killed her, so what's up with 2 different Malficents. And then at the very end Rumple (who is now banished from Storybrooke) is in New York and goes to an Aquarium to find Ursala (but how did she get to this world). Maybe they'll explain all in the second half of the season.. guess we gotta wait until early next year to see it.

I also watched a series called Looking. I had never heard of the series and no wonder it's an HBO series and I don't have HBO. But I ran across a poster and thought to myself.. oh look a new gay themed tv series. Come to find out that it's not actually new, it's been out since January of 2014 and ran eight episodes. It did well enough that they picked it up for a second season which begins in January of 2015.

Here's there very complex synopsis of the series: Three friends explore the fun and nearly limitless options available to a new generation of gay men in San Fransisco.

I watched all eight half hour episodes back to back to back. So I guess you can say that I enjoyed the series. I liked this series because it had a very diverse group of gay men and the majority of them weren't your typical "flaming" gay men, they seemed like everyday joes, which I can relate to. The main star of the show is Jonathan Groff (he was in Glee for a bit and he voiced Kristoff in Frozen).

The other actors I didn't really know anything about with exception to Russell Tovey, who I have seen here and there on some BBC stuff (Being Human & Sherlock). I've always found him attractive but I have to say I fell in love with him and his character on this series, he's just simply adorable. He was a reoccurring character in season one but is a main character in the up coming season two... and I can't wait.

This series has a Queer as Folk vibe, but with so much less drama. The episodes being a half hour, they really do fly by. I never feel bored with what's happening. Since this is the first season they are slowly building up the relationships and friendship of the guys as well as their back stories. Only downside to this series that I saw is the guys doing drugs (well pot). If your to believe the majority of gay themed TV and movies, all gay men do drugs and believe it not that's not true.

Anyways I'm looking forward to season two in January and more Russel Tovey :)

MASH, Grand Budapest Hotel & Card Games

Started my day by recording six new episodes of my MASH 4077 Podcast with my buddies Meds and Al. It's always fun getting together with those guys to talk about one of my favorite TV comedies of all time. If you're a MASH fan and not listening to our podcast.. then what are you waiting for? You can download or take a listen to it HERE.

My buddy Will texted a group of us and asked if we wanted to come over and watch a movie. I was up for it so I headedover. Will and I got to catch up for a bit and just chat. We were then joined by Dallas, and then Robert and Cait and finally Will's girlfriend Becca joined in the fun. We ordered some Chinese food for dinner and watched The Grand Budapest Hotel. Here's a quick synopsis: In the 1930s, the Grand Budapest Hotel is a popular European ski resort, presided over by concierge Gustave. Zero, a junior lobby boy, becomes Gustave's friend and protege. Gustave prides himself on providing first-class service to the hotel's guests, including satisfying the sexual needs of the many elderly women who stay there. When one of Gustave's lovers dies mysteriously, Gustave finds himself the recipient of a priceless painting and the chief suspect in her murder.

This is a Wes Anderson film and until recently I wasn't a big fan of his films. But his 2012 film Moonrise Kingdom wasn't bad so I kind of knew what to expect with his sytle of movie and it didn't disappoint. This is one quirky film, it's very stylized and the cinematography is very interesting. What's crazy about this film is it starts with someone telling a story in 2014, then goes back in time about 30 years to the 1980's and someone else starts to tell a story and then it goes back in time another 20 years to the 1960's and then another person starts to tell a story that goes back another 30 years to the 1930's and this is where the main story takes place. 

As for the story it's as I said very quirky but interesting. This movie is slow but it always kept me interest. By the end I enjoyed the film and so did everyone who watched it (at least I think they did).

Becca had to leave for the evening so Dallas, Robert, Will, Cait and I played a few board/card games. First up was Chrononauts.  In Chrononauts, each player becomes a time traveler, with a unique identity and a secret mission. During the game, players travel backwards and forwards through history, doing all those things people have always dreamed of using a time machine to do: Visiting the great moments of the past, peeking into the
future, collecting up impossible artifacts and priceless works of art (at the moment just before history records their destruction), coming to grips with the paradoxes of time travel, and of course, changing pivotal events and altering the course of history itself.

This was a quick game to understand and was a lot of fun. The games themselves went very quick and the only real downside to this game is that you don't know what the other person's "secret" mission is so you can't really do anything to prevent them from winning. You're playing along until someone says.. I win. We played a few games of this before moving on to Sentinels of the Multiverse.

Sentinels of the Multiverse is a cooperative, fixed-deck card game with a comic book flavor. Each player plays as one of ten heroes, against one of four villains, and the battle takes place in one of four different dynamic environments. Each player, after selecting one of the heroes, plays a deck of 40 cards against the villain and environment decks, which "play themselves", requiring the players to put the top card of the appropriate deck into play on the villain and environment turns. On each player's turn, they may play a card from their hand, use a power printed on one of their cards in play, and draw a card from their deck. Each round starts with the villain turn, continues clockwise around the table, then concludes with the environment turn. Each villain has various advantages, such as starting with certain cards in play, as specified by the villain character card. Play continues until the heroes reduce the villain to 0 or fewer HP, or until the villain defeats the heroes, either via a win condition or by reducing all the heroes to 0 or fewer HP.

Once you understand how to play this game it's not to bad. I played the hero Legacy. His HP was pretty high so most of my powers consisted of adding HP to other players or taking "hits" for other players when they are attacked. It was fun but I think I enjoyed Chrononauts little more. But I do like playing cooperative games.

Overall it was a fantastic evening of good food, good times and good company.

Three More Screeners

I got three more screeners today. Two movie that I heard of and a third that I haven't. First Nightcrawler, from the title and me being a geek my thoughts go to X-Men but this has nothing to do with that Nightcrawler and from the previews it doesn't really look like a movie that I would enjoy, though it does have one of my favorite actors Jake Gyllenhaal.

The next one is Mr Turner which I've only seen a quick scene as the main actor Timothy Spall was on Graham Norton promoting it. Doesn't look like a movie I'd like but it is based on a real person and for some reason I have enjoyed a few of those types of movies this year.. so will see.

The final movie that I got was Still Alice, don't have a clue what this is, haven't seen a trailer or heard anything about it. So I looked it up online and here's a quick synopsis: A vibrant and accomplished college professor (Julianne Moore) disappears in front of her friends, family and herself as Alzheimer's disease slowly destroys her mind. This sounds really heavy.. gonna have to be a great mood when watching this one.

My Second 30 Days

Sixty days ago I was diagnosed as pre-diabetes, my sugar levels were 6.4 and to be officially diabetic your sugar levels need to be 6.5 and above... so I have come as close to being diabetic without being official. So I had to make some changes... some major changes

I have 90 days before I have to go back and be re-tested in hopes that my numbers have gone done. So here was my 90 day plan to eat better and lose weight. The first 30 days was getting into a routine with working out and begin to change my diet. After the first 30 days my cardio workouts were like second nature. I wake up and first thing I'd do is put on my sweats and head out and do my 30/45 minute jog/walk around the NoHo park.. diet on the other hand is much harder. I have given up junk food and fast food for the most part. I've given up potatoes and pasta. I'm still eating wheat pasta and bread but hopefully I'll give up that as well pretty soon.

For the middle 30 days I wanted to increase my working out from a half hour to a full hour of cardio and continue to work on my diet and start to include veggies. Well today marks the end of my second 30 days and my cardio workouts are going well. I have jogged/walked about 45 minutes everyday, 7 days a week with exception to one week when I was to sick to move. My diet on the other hand isn't going well. I'm still trying hard to not eat fast food, I'm down to once a week, sometimes two. I haven't introduced as many vegetables as I would like into my diet and it's a struggle everyday to not eat poorly.
 
And now I start my final 30 days, my cardio is great, I'll continue to do my 45 minute cardio walk/jog around the park everyday, there's no problem there. What I need to focus on is my diet. I'm finding it much harder then I had ever expected. I think it's because I'm expected to give up everything all at once and I'm finding that way to difficult. I try not to keep sweets or "bad" food, aka carbs in the apartment as I know I'll get desperate and eat them. Just like with my diet soda (which I no longer keep in the house) and only drink when I go out on occasions.

As for my weight... I lost 6 pounds in my first 30 days going from 217 to 211. Today I weighted myself and I went from 211 to 203.5, that's 7.5 pounds more for my second 30 days for a total of 13.5 pounds in 60 days. I'm not thrilled with those numbers but I guess I should be happy that the numbers are going down. My goal was to lose at least 18 pounds and get below 200 by the time I go in for my 90 day check up and if I continue to do what I'm doing I shouldn't have a problem achieving that goal. 

Thanks to everyone for your continued love and support.

Unbroken Screener & Re-Watching Downton Abbey S2

I got another screener today, this is a movie I was hoping to get a screener for.. Unbroken. Looks very dramatic and I'm sure it's going to be emotional but it looks really good.

My all day Downton Abbey Re-watch continued but I did manage to do stuff around the apartment like wrapping Christmas gifts and cleaning up the place. I watched all the Season 1 extras, all eight episodes of Season 2 and it's extras as well. Unfortunately or fortunately (depend on how you look at it) I don't have Seasons 3, 4 or 5 on DVD/Blu-ray yet and they are not on Netflix... so I have to stop with S2 for the time being.

More Screeners, Downton Abbey Rewatch & Babylon 5 Continues

First of all I got several more screeners today. Inherent Vice, which I have seen previews to and it doesn't look like my kind of movie but then my second screener was The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies... now this is my type of movie.

After my morning cardio I made the mistake of putting on Downton Abbey. I've been wanting to do a rewatch of the entire five seasons so I figured I'd be able to pop on the first season and kind of have it on in the background while I do stuff around the apartment... yeah it was a good theory but I spent the majority of the day with my butt on the couch getting sucked back into one of the best period piece drama that I've ever seen. I sat and watched all even episodes of the first season back to back to back.

During the evening I went over to my buddy Roberts place to watch some more Babylon 5. We finally getting to the end of season five, which is the last season of the series but then we have five TV movies to watch and a spin off series (if we choose).

We started our watch with S5 Ep18 "The Fall of Centauri Prime" Centauri Prime has been attacked, thousands have died. Londo finds out the truth, who masterminded the war, and why they allowed the attack on Centauri Prime to happen. Londo becomes Emperor, and has to act hostile to those he once called "friend." 

We knew this was coming from the "future" episode we saw, It's hard for me to feel pity for Londo. He made the bed he now lies in. I know he did what he did to the greater good of Centauri but look what it's done to his world. He will now have to live with what his actions caused. It's a very sad ending for his character. 

And then we watched S5 Ep19 "The Wheel of Fire" G'Kar returns to the station to find he has become a religious icon. Sheridan confronts Garibaldi about his drinking problems. Lyta is taken into custody for planning attacks on Psi Corps. Delenn collapses, and they find out she's pregnant. 

I was kind of disappointed in the Lyta character in this episode. I've always liked her but with that said I understand why she did what she did. Her "people" are being oppressed and used and she's doing everything she can do help them. I'm glad that Garibaldi was finally called out on his drinking and hopefully he can get his life back together. I've been waiting to hear about Sheridan and Delenn's baby as we know they have a son from that "future" episode that we saw. Not sure how I feel about Lyta and Garibaldi teaming up. This episode felt like they were wrapping up storylines.. the end is near.

Scorpion, Christmas Card & Into the Woods - My Review

Today I watched the mid season finale of one of my favorite new TV shows, Scorpion. Most of the episodes are extremely suspenseful but this last episode was so tense that I think I stood and paced with anticipation for the outcome. From beginning to about 2/3'ds of the way through it was tense and I didn't see how they would get out of this situation. And then at the very end all the emotions started to come out and after being tense for 45 minutes it was nice to get that emotional release. Can't wait for this series to return next year.

I saw this Christmas Card on a show I watch called "Right This Minute" so I found it on you tube. Now there is debate on whether it's a legit flip book type animation or if it's pure animation simulating the flip book style. Either way I love the song and it's pretty EPIC...

And as I mentioned in my previous blog post, I got the screener for Into the Woods and I said I figured I'd be watching it sooner then later as many of my friends want to see it.. and sure enough tonight I headed over to my friend Jes and Dallas' place with my buddy Robert to watch Into the Woods.

For those of you who don't know the story here's a brief synopsis: Into the Woods is a modern twist on the beloved Brothers Grimm fairy tales in a musical format that follows the classic tales of Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Jack and the Beanstalk, and Rapunzel-all tied together by an original story involving a baker and his wife, their wish to begin a family and their interaction with the witch who has put a curse on them.

This has been a stage play for many years and it's even on DVD (a recorded version of the stage play) which I saw and really enjoyed. So I had an idea of what to expect but what was funny is when the movie starts and it goes right into musical mode and I was taken back. Though I knew it was a musical I didn't realize that the movie too was going to be a musical.. yeah I know I'm an idiot. 

I don't want to get to spoilery but I enjoyed the movie overall, the music is fantastic, the actors were great and the story, though sad at times, it pretty fun. I love when you see actors that you don't realized could sing belt out a tune. It funny to me as the promo/trailers show alot of Johnny Depp in the film and he really only has the one scene and one song (which I felt was the weakest of all of them). I like that they kept to more of the "original" Cinderella storyline with the evil step sisters. Overall it's a very Charming film. I give Into the Woods a solid A

Into the Woods Screener

I was surprised to get this screener so early as the movie itself doesn't come out until Christmas. Studios tend to released screeners closer to if not after the movie is released to prevent piracy. But none-the-less I got a screener for Into the Woods. I've seen the taped live performance of this play and really enjoyed it so I'm looking forward to this one.

I suspect I'll be watching this one sooner then later as many of my friends are super excited to see this one.