Little Bit O’ This.. Little Bit O’ That..

I met a Desert Storm vet at the library today. He was a really nice guy, and pretty intelligent too. I tried to help him out with his job search (tell him where I’ve had no luck so maybe he wouldn’t waste his time). He is really down on his luck and it saddens me. His veteran’s benefits can barely cover his rent if at all, and he can’t seem to find a job down here. He returned to college to have his aid run out so he won’t be able to afford books anymore. He also told me that veteran’s benefits are in danger of major cutbacks if they haven’t been cut already. We discussed the situation awaiting the men and women coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan (if they ever do). It’s going to be hard times for a lot of them and that saddens me. How can Dubya send people to war and destroy their benefits so when they come home with god-knows-what ailments, they might not get proper care? Doesn’t make any sense.

On to other more mundane things.. I’ve been watching a lot of the “Original Series” on Showtime and HBO. Showtime has two new shows which are excellent: Dead Like Me and Out of Order. Dead Like Me is a really amusing dramedy about a girl who dies and becomes a grim reaper. She works with a bunch of other grim reapers who take the souls of people before they die in horrible painful accidents. She, of course, goes through trauma and growing pains while she adjusts to her new life. It’s dark humor at its finest and helps to quell my post-Buffy withdrawl. Oh, by the way, it stars Mandy Patinkin (Inigo Montoya from the Princess Bride). Out of Order stars Eric Stoltz (Lance in Pulp Fiction) and Justine Bateman (Mallory Keaton on Family Ties). It is a drama about a man who has a wife who is suffering from clinical depression (and perhaps other mental illnesses) and his struggle to keep his marriage alive, stay loyal to his wife, and keep his wife from going on a destructive downward spiral. The show is wonderful and it’s definitely worth the watch.

HBO has its own group of interesting Original Programs. I am addicted to Six Feet Under and The Sopranos. I never thought I would’ve gotten so addicted to The Sopranos, but James Gandolfini and Michael Imperioli are wonderful. It also helps that I have major hots for James Gandolfini. How could you not? He’s a big, mean, teddybear! Grr! Six Feet Under is the most morose show I’ve ever watched, therefore its wonderful. It helps you to look at death in different ways and break up some of our culture’s taboos about death and dying. The two worst shows I’ve wasted any time on are Curb Your Enthusiasm and Sex in the City. I’ve already blogged on my hatred of Sex in the City, so I won’t revisit that, but I can’t make it through the opening sequence of Curb Your Enthusiasm. Hopefully it’ll get canned soon and they’ll start another series.