Saturday, July 30, 2011

Hiking Vasquez Rocks

Today I took my friends Jeff and Adam (Bel-Rand), who is visiting from Sweden for a hike at Vasquez Rocks. Adam is a city boy and had never gone hiking in his entire life, yes he's only 22 but still.. to never have gone hiking!!! Well Jeff who is visiting from the East Coast came out last year and I took him to Vasquez and he really liked it so we had to take Adam.

Both Jeff and Adam didn't have hiking/climbing shoes so instead of climbing the "famous" peak we opted for the rather "not so steep" but just as nice hike on the other side. We hiked for about an hour, it was hot and there was a slight breeze in certain areas but it was a fun hike. Adam seemed to enjoy it. Adam isn't a Star Trek fan.. yet. So he didn't know the significance of Vasquez Rocks but still seem to appreciate the cool looking rocks.

After our hike we picked up Harry and went out to lunch at Islands, again seems to be a favorite of mine to take out of town guests.

So all in all a nice visit and I'm glad I got to hang out with Jeff and Adam one last time before they head back home.

Friday, July 29, 2011

KOTG CompanionCast S5E1

Download from itunes - http://bit.ly/KotGCast, or listen/direct download http://bit.ly/2CrYxk

Show Notes:

It’s time once again for CompanionCasts for The Guild Season Five. First of all be sure you watched Episode 1 of season 5 “Road Trip”. If you haven’t seen it yet watch it HERE

Our Season 4 CompanionCasts were a huge hit so we thought we would do them again for Season 5. So what is a CompanionCast?? It’s a behind the scene look at the current episode of The Guild.

I was on set everyday while they shot Season 5. As actors and crew were finished with scenes I would try and speak to them. Get some inside info about the scene they just shot. I also interviewed Felicia Day and Kim Evey about the storyline and Sean Becker about the directing. Each one of these CompanionCasts will be episode specific and will vary in length depending on how much guildie goodness I am able to gather.

In this CompanionCast I interview Felicia Day, Sean Becker, Kim Evey, Sandeep Parikh, Robin Thorsen, Jeff Lewis, Hayley Holmes, Vince Caso and Greg Aronowitz

I hope you enjoy a look behind the scenes of Season 5 Episode 1 “Road Trip

Kenny

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Thank You, Thank You, Thank You

As of today, only 4 days since the horrible theft of my podcasting equipment at comic con I have received 21 donations from fellow Guildies and my Treks in Sci fi family. It still amazes me on how lucky I am to not only have one but two FANTASTIC "online" families. I am very thankful that during these hard economic times you can still support a friend when needed. I am putting your donations to good use. I just purchased a new hand held recorder, it's pretty epic. It's the H4n and is professional quality.

I just want to thank you all. You have given me your support not only in donations but with your texts, emails, hey tells and tweets. You guys are truly an amazing group of human beings.

Editing KOTG CompanionCasts

I was up at 6am trying to finish editing episode 1 of season five companioncasts. I worked on it a few hours last night be at midnight was nodding off so I opted to go to bed and get up early to finish. Well around 8am right before work I got done and it's ready to be posted tomorrow (tonight at midnight). I hope you guys enjoy it.. got lots of great interviews from the cast of The Guild. I'll post a link once it becomes available.

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Knights of the Guild Ep 35


Download from itunes - http://bit.ly/KotGCast, or listen directly/ Download http://bit.ly/2CrYxk 
Today’s show features:
  • * Knights of the Guild theme song by Matthew Gehrett http://www.matthewgehrett.com/
  • * Listener Feedback
  • * Fan Interview with Chris Setts
  • * Donations
  • * Guild Trivia
  • * How to find us on the Web.. aka Business Time
Thank you again for all your support, we do this podcast because we are fans and more importantly for the fans.
Kenny

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Harry Potter in IMAX 3D

Tonight after work I went to City Walk to hang out one last time with my buddy Thomas who is visiting from Ireland. We planned to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2 in IMAX 3D. We saw this on the day it premiered in 2D but he wanted to see it again and in IMAX as he's never been to an IMAX movie. And like I wouldn't take any opportunity to see Harry Potter again. I've been so busy that this is only my second viewing.

Before the movie we wanted to grab some dinner so we headed to Johnny Rockets and ate burgers and fries and chatted about Ireland. After dinner we walked around City Walk and check out the shops until around 10:30pm when we headed into the theater got some soda, popcorn and milkduds then headed into the IMAX theater. The movie started at 10:45 and when it started the 3D was off and everything was doubled. But after a few people complained they fixed it within 5 minutes.

We both agree Seeing Harry Potter in an IMAX theater is epic.. the 3D.. not so much. But it was still great seeing Harry Potter 7 part 2 and it was fun hanging out with Thomas one more time before he heads home to Ireland.

Doing Better

Feeling better today, not hurting so much though my feet lower legs look like someone took a razor blade to them. As I thought it's going to take a few weeks for them to heal (but it was totally worth it). Neck is feeling better.. a little stiff but not bad.

Donations, love and support continue to come in... my "online" friends continue to amaze me. Got an email from my buddy Adam asking if it was cool if he tried to set up something to help get funds to get new equipment. Also Brian and some Guildies are kicking around the idea of starting a Kickstarter project to fund my new equipment.

I'm feeling better about Comic Con, blogged about the first few days and it made me smile. Posting pictures up on facebook and it's reminding me of all the good times.

I also want to give a shout out and HUGE Thank you to Jason Palmer (favorite artist of mine). One of his pieces that I purchased a SDCC, this Epic Star Wars print was taken. So I emailed him asking if he had another one that I could purchase as I really loved it. He wrote a very supportive email and asked for my address and said he would send me a replacement one at no cost to me. How awesome is that!!


Monday, July 25, 2011

The Next Morning

Don't think I fell asleep until around 2am and was back up at 6am for work. Wasn't feeling to hot, my feet were sore from the Hobbit feet and my neck was hurting from the wipe lash from the accident I was in last night. Took a long hot shower hoping it would make me feel better.. didn't really work. Got out of the shower and walked the dog, then the first thing I did was call the SD Police to report the theft. As I predicted there isn't much they can do. They took down all my info and created a report and they will see if there is surveillance footage of the parking garage but they are doubtful that our stuff will be found.

I don't think my car insurance covers theft (as I got the bare minimum) but I'll look into it just to be safe and I was also told that my home owners insurance might cover theft from my car.. so I'm looking into that as well.

I was so not in the mood to work but after taking off three days last week I knew I had alot to do to catch up and I was right. Today was a horrible day at work, lots of stuff going on and way to much stress for me. Didn't have a chance to call neither my home or car insurance.. will have to do that tomorrow.

One positive note and it goes to show you how wonderful my "online" family is. Word got out that I was robbed and that I lost my podcasting equipment among other things and several guildies sent me donations towards replacing my equipment. Vince Caso (Bladezz on The Guild) emailed me and asked if there was anything he could do as well as several friends. Support was coming from all over the place and it made this bad situation a little better.

I'm trying hard to not let this ruin SDCC for me as I really did have a great time but when I think about it all I remember is the robbery. I hope in a few days I can look back at this years can and smile.

Sunday, July 24, 2011

Thieves & Car Accidents

Well I had had a great 2011 Comic Con experience, up to about 7pm when Troy and I headed back to the convention center to get in my jeep and head home. I turned off my alarm and walked over to the drives side when I noticed that my back driver side window was unzipped (I have a soft top) and opened. I looked into the car and noticed clothes all over the place. We had been robbed!! I quickly went inside the car and started to pull everything out to see what was taken. My heart dropped when I noticed that my entire bag of electronics was gone. Inside that bag was my Dell Netbook, MXL 990 Condenser microphone, sony portable audio recorder, battery charger for my still camera, 2 microphone stands, XLR to USB icicle converter, Flip cam and various other little things, like KOTG business cards as well as my own personal business cards. KOTG postcards and flyer's.  They also took my Harry Potter wand, my GPS, my Lighter Plug in USB port and another thing that really stung my poster tube with my just purchased ($90) Star Wars print from Jason Palmer, my three beautifully autographed Team Unicorn posters and my two Guild posters and my friends Ben's autographed picture.  As Troy was going through his stuff I could hear him groaning, they got his laptop with years of photos that he's never backed up, they got his camera battery charger and all his autographed photos and posters as they were being stored in my poster tube as well.

It was thought I was punched in the stomach. Troy just sat there on the floor looking lost, my instinct was to just get out of there.. I wanted nothing more then to go home, crawl under my bed sheets and cry. so I grabbed everything through it in a bag and left. On the way home I debated on calling the police, I knew there would be nothing they could do, so I opted to wait until I got home to call. Troy slept all the way home, there were several times when I though I would need to pull over the throw up (but luckily I did not). There was so much traffic and I just wanted to get home.. the more I sat there the sicker I felt. Finally after 3 hours I got Troy home. Still had another hour and a half with no traffic to get to my place.

As I got back on the 405 the car in front of me slammed on his breaks and I did the same, but the person behind me was too slow and I heard them hit their breaks and looked in my rear view mirror to see their lights heading right for me. They hit the back of my jeep dead on. I was thrown forward (thank goodness for seat belts) and in a daze for a second. I turned on my signal to pull to the side of freeway and thought the person was going to do the same thing but as I turned to see if they were behind me they zoomed by my car and were gone. I sat there shocked and shaking. I tried to calm myself down as I got out of my Jeep to see what kind of damage they did as they hit me pretty hard. To my surprise there was nothing.. at least nothing I could see in the low light I was in. I took a few moments to collect myself before jumping back on the freeway and heading home.

I got home around midnight, said hi to Harry and went bed. This wasn't how I wanted to end my San Diego Comic Con experience.  I was emotionally and physically exhausted. I will call the SD police in the morning and report the theft, I'm still not sure if I know everything they took.  Did a quick add up of both Troy and my stuff and the theft or thieves got away with over $3000 dollars.

Not sure what I'm going to do next.. just need this day to end.

San Diego Coimc Con - Day 4 - Sunday

Got a great night sleep and was up early today, we had a lot to do before the con started at 9am. Had to drive Michael and his stuff to his truck and then go back to my hotel and packed up as we were checking out. Everything went as planned,  we got everything in the jeep, checked out and even booked a room for next year just to be safe.

I had purchased a parking pass for under the convention center so it would be easier of us to leave when it was over. I had planned to dress up in my Harry Potter robes but after spending two days as a Hobbit all I wanted to do was enjoy the dealers room and shop. So I opted for just a geeky shirt only. Once again Troy and I parted ways and I wandered the floors by myself for a bit taking pictures. My brother called and said he was heading home. I hooked with my buddy Thomas and we walked the floor for a bit before he headed off to the Guild booth. About an half hour later we hooked back up at Nerd HQ for the Team Unicorn signing and I got three beautiful posters of the lovely geek girls. We then both went back to the Guild booth as I needed to get several of the Guild new posters and finally get my friend Ben's picture that he sent to me months ago signed by the cast. Once we were both done there we headed down to our cars to drop off the pictures and posters.

We meet up with my friend Jen who joined Thomas and I at Cafe Diem for some lunch... I love that place. And I covertly "borrow" one of their cool menus. I figure they can't use them again for next year so why not get a souvenir. While there Jeff Valdez found us and hung out for a bit. After lunch we headed back to con and Thomas went to see if he could get in line for the Doctor Who panel and Jen, Jeff and I met up with other Guildies and walked the floor. Around 4 we headed to the Guild booth for a final Guildie meet up and photo op. At 5pm the San Diego Comic con 2011 was officially over. 


We didn't want to leave right away as traffic would be horrible, Thomas, Jen, Troy, Aaron, Chris and myself headed to the Strip Club restaurant (it's a play on words). We get in there and notice that folks are cooking their own meat. I thought it was kind of cool but several of the folks at the table didn't think so ::cough:: Chris ::cough::. He just couldn't understand how they can charge you these high prices and then make you cook your own meat.  It didn't stop him from doing it but we got an ear full. :) As we were leaving we noticed another bunch Guildies seating down for dinner and said hi and goodbye as we left.

We all parted ways and Troy and I headed back to the convention center to head home.  When we got to my jeep I couldn't believe what I saw.