Saturday, August 27, 2011

Confessions of a Fanboy #1

Hey all you Fanboys and Fangirls, it's finally here... the first episode of my new Podcast all about being a fan. Figured since I'm a fanboy I'll start off with my own Confession.

If you want to confess your fanboy or fangirl-ism to me send me an email at ConfessionsofaFanboy@gmail.com

You can also follow us on Twitter @FanboyPodcast, or follow the Host Kenny @Geekyfanboy

You an "Like" us on Facebook just click HERE

Confessions of a Fanboy is a Geekyfanboy Production  and has a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. All Rights Reserved

My Saturday

So this weekend I have 3 different podcasts that I need to, if not finish, get a big portion of them done. So I got up around 7am and started working on episode 15 of my MASH 4077 Podcast. After several hours of editing and needed a break so I went and cleaned my kitchen. When I got back to my computer I decided to try and record and finish my very first Confessions of a Fanboy podcast. I recorded some of it a few days ago but still had some more recording and then editing of the podcast. 

At 10am I decided to take another break and this time I went out and did some much needed yard work. It was hot, in the high 90's so I only lasted a half hour, but got quite a bit of work done. After that I had to take a shower and get ready to go visit my Dad.

At 11:30am I headed out to my Dad's and arrived around 1pm. Had a nice visit with my Dad, had lunch, and took him shopping. He had his final chemo treatment a few days prior and so he didn't have a lot of energy so we took our time. I did get some great news.. as of my Dad's latest doctors appointment they did a cat scan and couldn't find any more cancer. All test were negative so the doctors have said he is now cancer free. His while blood cell count is below average and that's because the chemo kills the bad cells but also kills the good. So he'll need to take some meds for the next few months but he should be back to normal in no time.

I got back on the road around 4pm and arrived home at 6:30pm. Had some dinner and then jumped back on the computer to hope and finish both my MASH and Confessions of a Fanboy podcast. Well that didn't quite happen. I did finish my first episode of my new podcast Confessions of a Fanboy so I feel as thought I accomplished something... but that leaves two podcasts that I have to finish tomorrow. Oh well will see what happens.

Friday, August 26, 2011

A Magical Delivery

Well if you keep up with my blog you know last month I was robbed at San Diego Comic Con and along with all my podcasting equipment they took my Harry Potter wand. Now like any good Wizard I have to have a wand so I went on Ebay and planned on purchasing a replacement wand but there were so many cool ones to choose from so I got all SEVEN of them. And here they are...

Oh almost forgot they all light up as well.. soooo coooool (click on photo for larger version)
Hermione's Wand

Voldermort's Wand




Dumbledore's Wand (Elder Wand)
Mad Eye Moody's Wand

Sirius Black Wand
Ron's Wand


Harry's Wand

KOTG CompanionCast S5E5

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

It’s time once again for the next CompanionCasts for The Guild Season Five. First of all be sure you watched Episode 5 of season 5 “Focus Problem”. 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, Kim Evey, Sandeep Parikh, Jeff Lewis, Amy Okuda, Vince Caso and Greg Aronowitz

I hope you enjoy a look behind the scenes of Season 5 Episode 5 “Focus Problem”
Kenny

Thursday, August 25, 2011

Professional Podcaster

So my current TV gig is ending in less then a month (Whoo hooo). I'm really trying hard to not go back into TV Post production supervising because as I am getting older the stress of the job is taking a larger toll on me mentally and physically. So what do I do instead. 40 is pretty late in life on a career change and my next career I would love to have less stress and I don't need to make a ton of money as long as I can pay for my mortgage and monthly expense then I'll be good. So what to do?? PODCASTING!!!

Well I love Podcasting; creating, producing, editing and hosting.. it's all tons of fun and I think I'm pretty good at it. Unfortunately podcasting doesn't pay and even costs money for URL's, websites and podcast servers. I got to thinking my podcasts numbers are decent Knights of the Guild is averaging 6000 to 14000 a month and my MASH 4077 is averaging about 2500 downloads a month. I'm also starting up my new Confessions of a Fanboy podcast so will see what the numbers are like for that one as well. Regardless, if I was able to charge 99 cents per episode/download that would be a nice monthly income. But I do realize that paying for a podcast is not the "norm", that most podcasts are free to download. I'm sure I would lose a lot of listeners because of it, but even if a 1/3 of my listeners stuck with me and paid the 99 cents per download,  I could survive on that and create even more fun podcasts and making podcasting my new career.

Of course there is always a plan B. Again my numbers are decent I might be able to get some advertising and/or sponsorship and go that route. But without HUGE numbers I wouldn't be able to charge enough money to survive solely on my podcasting.

These ideas are all still in there early stages, gotta do a bit more research on both charging for podcasts and finding advertisers and sponsorship. Unfortunately that means I may have to take another stress filled post job before I can put anything of my plans into action. But I'm determined to make my future living as a professional podcaster.

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Chatting with Felicia

Tonight after a 2 hour 10 minute commute home I barely had time to take off my shoes before I had to be online and chatting with Felicia Day over skype for some upcoming Knights of the Guild CompanionCasts. We discussed episodes 505 and 506 (this weeks and next weeks episodes) Felicia was kind enough, on her one day off from Eureka to chat with me. As always it was a fun chat. I love hearing Felicia's thoughts on these episodes, you really get some detailed behind the scenes information that you can't get any where else. After the interview I tried to edit a bit more of the next CompanionCast (due out Thursday PM) but was too tired and went to bed around 10 knowing I had to get up early for a conference call with New York MTV.

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Heading Over to the Whedon's

Today after work I had the pleasure of going over to Maurissa Tancharoen Whedon's house to sit down and do an interview with her for some upcoming Knights of the Guild podcast. Her character Alena appeared in episode 4 and I unfortunately wasn't able to interview her for that episode but I wanted to make sure I got her for future episodes.  Well I got to her place around 7:30pm and she graciously welcomed me into her home. I set up my Ipad to watch the episodes we would be talking about. Jed came downstairs and joined us. After the episodes we did the interview for about thirty minutes. Got lots of great information and also got an update for her fans on Mo's health... btw she looks fantastic!!

After the interview Maurissa and I just sat around and chatted about life for the next hour and a half. It was great. I meet Maurissa on the set of Do You Want to Date My Avatar (as she was a dancer and Jed was directing it). We chatted for a bit then and a few other times at wrap parties or Felicia's gaming parties and even on set but we never got any real good one on one time with each other... until tonight and it was so much fun. We talked about her current health situation and my person life craziness as of late. She let me in on a few upcoming project that she and Jed are working on, she also took me upstairs where they do all their audio recording and editing. 

About 9:30pm I said my good night and headed home. It was a fantastic way to end my day. Hopefully we have many more "hangouts" in our future.

Sunday, August 21, 2011

My Return to Disneyland

Today I went to Disneyland to meet up with some "online" friends from Arizona. Both Al and his wife Joyce are huge Disney Fanatics and both have become really close to me though we had never met in person. They were here for D23, which is a big Disney convention so I thought it was time for me to visit the part again and finally meet two of my closest friends in person. They were in panels until around noon so I left my house around 9:30am and got the part around 11am. I've been wanting to buy and annual pass for a while now so when I got there I went to get it. I had planned to get a Deluxe ($380) one which allows you in both parks 315 days a year, which isn't bad. But then Joyce texted me and said "you should consider the Premium pass ($500) as you'll be paying $15 to park everytime you come" so it got me thinking, you pay $80 for one day pass at one park and $15 to park that's $95 a visit for one park only. If I come 6 times in a year that will pay for the Premium pass and you get free parking and you can visit both parks 365 days a year. Oh and you get 10 to 20% off food and merchandise.. sounded like a win win to me. I mean this was my first visit, I'm coming back again next month at the end of September and then once again in October when a friend comes down from Michigan. So that's three times in three months.. and who's to say I won't go in between those time.  Needless to say I got the premium pass.

I got into Disneyland around 11:30am and I figured my friends Al and Joyce would be heading over around Noon so I didn't want to get on any rides so I kind of wandered around, took some pictures, did lots of people watching.. it was actually nice being at Disneyland and not having to rush around feeling like you have to do to everything because you paid so much for your one day pass. Now I can leisurely enjoy the park. Al and Joyce made it over to Disneyland a little after 1pm.  They though they would sneak up on me by not telling me they were actually in the park but I actually spotted them and kind of followed behind them as they looked for. Until I finally said.. "who are  you looking for" It was like greeting old friends. If felt as though we've known each other for many years.. and the fact is we have known each other for a few years just never met in person.

First thing we did was grab some corn dogs as I was starving. After corn dogs we headed over to Star Tours (of course) and got in line. Said was going to be an hour but it actually took about 2 hours to get on. But I don't mind lines as long as I have someone to talk too. This was going to be my first time on the new and improved Star Tours. There are 54 different scenarios/combinations you can get. There are 4 different variation to the story.. (1) We got Darth Vader attacking (2) then went to Tatooine and got in a pod racing game (3) Yoda came to us (4) we were in a battle over Coruscant and then flew into the planet and through traffic. The new ride is so much fun.. felt like it just flew by. I can see myself riding this again and again and again.

After Star Tours we headed to Space Mountain.. at least Joyce and I did  as Al is not a big fan of roller coasters. It was nice having some one on one time with Joyce. She's one of the sweetest people I know and we've had some great talks over facebook. We had a great time on Space Mountain.

We met back up with Al and I wanted to go shopping. I wanted to pick up a Captain EO tshirt and a few Star Tours thing. I got my Captain EO shirt and also picked up an AWESOME Star Tours tshirt and one of my most favorite things my R2D2 Mickey ears with my name on the back.

After we did that we headed over to Disney California Adventure to go on the new Little Mermaid ride. That was actually alot of fun. Kind of reminded me of the Haunted Mansion (but less scary of course) same type of chairs and mover. But well worth the hour wait in line.

We then went and had dinner at an Italian restaurant which I can't remember the name of but it was some very good food. After that we headed over to the Toy Story ride (which I have never done) and stood in live for a good hour or so for that ride and I have to say that is one of my new favorites. I had blast trying to beat Al.. in the end he killed me but it was so much fun.. that's defiantly a must ride when I visit the parks.

I really wanted to do ElecTRONica so they took me over to that section and it was like a big Rave.. loud music and laser lights all over the place.. it was pretty great.

It's was now 9:30pm and I had planned to stay to Midnight but that wasn't going to happen. I was tired and my feet were hurting and I still have at least an hour and fifteen minute drive home, but before we left Al and Joyce had never had a Churro so of course I had to buy them one and they both really enjoyed them. After that we said our goodbyes and I got back on the tram to go to my car. Finally got on the road around 10pm and traffic was pretty heavy but I did manage to get home around 11:30pm.

Anyways it was a wonderful day. I finally got to meet two of my best friends and it was great visiting Disneyland again and now that I have my annual pass I'm sure I'll be going several times a month if not more.. that place is and will always be Magical!!!

You can check out more pictures HERE