Saturday, March 17, 2012

Wondercon Day 2

Saturday started bright and early Jes, Chris and I were wearing the same costumes that we wore yesterday. Kimi was going as an Orion Starfleet Officer and we talked Robert, who was not going to dress up, into wearing Chris' Green Lantern outfit. That was fun because the bottom half of the costume are tights and Robert was worried about his "junk" we went back and forth on the idea of "packing" his junk or not. Well we tried several times but each time his "junk" looked a bit deformed. In the end I suggested that he wear two pairs on underwear (one being a pair of briefs). Since his "junk" already looks good the extra support gave it a good shape and we were all happy (this is why I love my friends, we can make "packing" our "junk" a fun adventure). After that Jes helped Kimi apply her green make up while Robert and Chris helped me with my ears. I decided to go with the pair that I wore at last years comic con. They are only tips and since I didn't have the right make up to blend them these compared to yesterday were more subtle.

We got to the con around 11am and like we did yesterday we roamed around the floor all day having our picture taken. Jes was the star yesterday but today it was all about Chris. Our group split up around 1pm. Kimi and Robert headed to the Geek and Sundry panel while Chris, Jes and I just continued to roam around the floor. I ran into a few friends of my brothers and also Felicia Day who was off to her panel (Geek and Sundry). Chris, Jes and I did not attend her panel as there was a line and we didn't want to wait around while in our cosplay outfits. When the panel was over we met back up with Kimi and Robert, but Kimi wanted to go find a few friends of her so she took off. The rest of us headed over to the Hilton to grab a bit to eat. After what felt like forever (about an hour or so), we got our food. After a late lunch my buddy Luis showed up and joined our group along with Dallas, Kevin and Aaron. We headed back to the floor to walk around for another hour. Around 6pm we decided to head back to our hotel, we said our good-byes to everyone as we were meeting back at our hotel room for a party later in the night. Chris, Jes, Kimi, Robert and I went back to our hotel room and removed our costumes  and just relaxed. About a half hour later I got a text from my friend Michele asking if she could come crash at our hotel for a few hours before heading back home to LA. I said of course and about 10 minutes later she was in our room. Half hour later she got a call from her friend Milynn who had a flat tire on the side of a freeway heading back to LA, only problem is they didn't have a spare. So Michele's visit was cut short as she headed out to rescue Milynn.

After Michele left we decided to split up in several groups to get ready for this Birthday, St. Paddy's Day, Wondercon room party. Jes and Chris were headed to Anne's hotel room to pick up some alcohol and on the way ran into Rupert. While Luis and I went to The Cheesecake Factory to get a cake for Robert's birthday and ran into Anthony while in route and Kimi and Robert stayed at the hotel just in case anyone showed up.

Cheesecake Factory was crazy.. but I did get the best looking chocolate cake I had ever seen. Yes it was $50 bucks and I could have gotten one from the local Ralphs for a quarter of the price, but convenience won out. I also got a $45 cheesecake. So I spent $95 on two cakes, might have spent a bit too much on these but they were yummy and everyone enjoyed them. And to be honest Robert is worth every penny :)

So we all got back to our hotel around 9ish and the party began. Guests of the party were Chris, Jes, Jen, Anne, Rachelle, Aaron, Dallas, Robert, Kimi, Rupert, Luis, Anthony, Jennifer C. and of course me. I won't go into great detail here as to what happens at these parties, it really should stay at these parties. But I can say that I got to kiss some boys and girls, and motorboat my way through a boob gauntlet. We all had a great time. We sung Happy Birthday to Robert and cut the cake with a sword. Then Chris and Robert had a special moment with said sword. We did shots and laughed and piled on beds... good times were being had by all. But then again I didn't expect anything else. With these kinds of friends you know it's going to be a fun geeky good time. The party ended around 2am, lucky most of the people had hotel rooms close by. Jen, Jes, Robert, Kimi, Chris, Rupert and I crashed at our place. I unfortunately got stuck with a air mattress that had a slow leak and found myself drowning in plastic. I wound up just sleeping on the floor. Wasn't the best night sleep.



Friday, March 16, 2012

Wondercon Day 1 (Night) - Suiting Up

We had planned a nice dinner with some of our friends who were also down at the con. So the three of us changed out of our costumes and played some rounds of Yahtzee on the iPad. While we were at the hotel my best bud Robert joined us. He was coming to Con on Saturday and decided to join us Friday night after he got off work. We picked a cocktail place to start the night off and then we were going to have dinner as McCormick & Schmick's Grille. We also decided that we would "suit up" for the night. If your not a How I Met Your Mother Fan (you should be) but there is a character named Barney (Neil Patrick Harris) who uses that phrase all the time. Just means put on a suit and hit the town. So Chris, Robert and I got ready and suited up while Jes hung back and relaxed.

We left our hotel and walked to The Garden Walk and tried to locate this "cocktail" place but after walking around for a bit we couldn't find it so instead we went to the bar section of McCormick & Schmick's and ordered some drinks. As Jes, Chris, Robert and I were waiting more friends showed up, Jen, Kevin, Anthony and Dallas. We were shown to our table and an hour later and Kimi, Adam, Jennifer and Holly joined the party. We had a fantastic dinner, yummy food and great company.

After dinner Jes, Chris and I headed back to the hotel. While Robert drove back to Kimi's place to drop off her car and he and her came back to our hotel as they were staying with us because they were going to join us for Wondercon the next day. Once they got to the hotel we picked our sleeping areas and went to bed.

You can check out more pictures HERE

Wondercon Day 1 (Day)

We got up early and Chris and I went out to Denny's for some breakfast. Jes actually had to jump on my computer and do a little work. We had a nice breakfast and what's funny Chris wore his Star Wars PJ bottoms to Denny's. When we got back Jes was done and she ate the breakfast we brought back. We had planned to leave the house around 10ish since the con didn't open until noon today. We loaded up the car and made our way down to Anaheim. Our hotel check in wasn't until 3pm but when we got there around noon we tried to check in and our suite was ready so we were able to unload the car and get into our room. We all planned to dress up aka cos-play for the day so we began the process. Jes was Harley Quinn from Batman, Chris was Altaïr from Assassins Creed and I was Frodo Baggins from Lord of the Rings. It took us about an hour but around 12:30pm we were ready to hit the con floor. For the next six hours the three of us walked around the floor checking out the con but more important stopping for photos. We meet up with several friends Kevin, Doug and Dallas along the way but it was pretty much the three of use walking around the entire time. When six o'clock came around we were exhausted and our feet were killing us (especially mine) so we called it a day and headed back to the hotel.

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Star Wars Pre-Wondercon Party

Saw a tweet earlier this week mentioning that Hero Complex was having a pre-Wondercon party at the Discovery Science Center, which just happens to be housing the Star Wars Where Science Meets Imagination exhibition. I saw this a few weeks ago but it sounded fun. So I chatted with my buddy Chris and we decided to go. I wasn't sure if he was getting tickets and by the time we communicated we had both gotten a tickets plus a guest. So we now had four tickets between us.

So for a week we both tweeted and facebooked that we had these tickets. BTW it took only a few hours before the RSVP's were gone. Jen mentioned that she was interested in going and on the day of the event she confirmed she wanted one of the tickets. But we still had one and no one had claimed it so as we were driving down there I tweeted one last time and our buddy Rupert (who happens to live close to there) said he wanted the tickets so he joined us for our fourth.

Chris got to my place around 4:30ish and we immediately headed down to the Center (with traffic it would take us a little over 2 hours to get there). As expected traffic was bad. The event started at 6pm to 9pm. Jen got there around 6:30 and said there was no line and that it looked dead. Chris and I arrived around 6:45 closely followed by Rupert. We meet up with Jen at the entrance and made our way in.

When we got inside there were a fair amount of people but nothing like I was expecting. They were serving free drink and very tasty hors d'oeuvres. The four of us walked around a bit having a drink and taking in the Discovery Center. Last time I was here I did nothing but the Star Wars Exhibit. The others (including Jen and Chris) did the entire center so there was plenty of stuff for me to see. When we finished our first drink we decided to head into the Star Wars exhibit. Now I took a ton of pictures and video just a few weeks prior so there was nothing new to see. We kind of walked through the place checking out all the cool Star Wars props. We took some pixs before heading upstairs. The Discovery Science Center is really for children and very interactive. So the four of us played around with all the cool things like a wind tunnel, laser string harp. Oh and I did lye on a bed of nails (interesting experience). We stayed for about an hour or so before we were to hungry to continue.

The four of us headed over to The Cheesecake Factory because I had a gift card and we enjoyed a great meal and chatted for bit. We all said our good-byes but would be seeing each other on the weekend for Wondercon. Chris and I headed back to my place and by the time we got home around 11:30pm Jes had arrived and we found her in my living room sipping on some wine watching TV.

This is going to be a crazy long weekend!!

MASH 4077 Podcast Episode 28

Download from itunes tinyurl.com/MASH4077itunes or Direct download or listen bit.ly/eXCRxT

Show Notes

Kenny Mittleider from Knights of the Guild, Alien Nation: The Newcomers Podcast & Confessions of a Fanboy Podcast, Simon Meddings from Waffle On Podcast, & Al Kessel from Tales from the Mouse House, Fast Forward & Just Because Podcast discuss one of the most successful and longest running television series in history.. M*A*S*H

Today we cover Season 2, Episode #4 - For The Good Of The Outfit

28th Episode Overall

Directed by Jackie Cooper
Written by Jerry Mayer
Production code K404
Original air date October 6, 1973

Set during the Korean War in the 1950’s

Plot Summary:Hawkeye and Trapper want the army to admit responsibility for the accidental bombing of a local village. They fill out a report and Major Stoner arrives to investigate, and leaves with all the evidence. When the story is released it claims that the enemy bombed the village, and the army tries to gag the doctors. But, thinking there could be a medal in it for him, Frank has also put a report together, with copies of all the evidence, including shell fragments, so the army comes clean.

Hope you enjoy it,
Kenny

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Entering the RobZone

Tonight I headed down to Los Angeles to have dinner with my new best bud Robert. This was our first one on one get together. We've hung out in groups but never just the two of us. I wanted to get there around 6pm but with traffic I didn't get to his place until 6:30pm. Got to see his place before heading out to Islands for some yummy burgers and cheddar fries. We ate and talked for a few hours at Islands about his life, my life, dating and other very interesting topics. I love these one on one conversations I feel like I really get to know the person without all the distractions of a group. And with Robert we have some very personal talks and as I've said in previous blog posts he and I just clicked. I've only known him a few months but it's as though we've been friends forever and our intimate conversation reflect that. After dinner we decided to head back to his place and chill for another few hours. Before I knew it four hours had flown by and it was 10:30pm and he needed to get to bed for an early day at work tomorrow. So we said our good nights.. made plans to make these one on one get together as weekly as possible and I headed home. I had an AWESOME time in the RobZone!!!

Monday, March 12, 2012

Chris and Kenny's Excellent Adventures

Today we got up around 8am and made our traditional biscuits and gravy for breakfast. Chris wanted to head home about noon so we decided to go for a nice hike at Vasquez Rocks. When we got there the park was closed (well the parking was closed), they look to be repaving. But there were cars parked all out front so we joined them and then walked on foot into the park. It was kind of cool because whenever we go Vasquez we try and not hike the same area and once again because we had to walk in from the outside we were hiking in an area we never hiked before.

yeah don't ask!!
For the next few hour we roamed around the area and had a great time. We found some very cool and extremely beautiful settings. I found a very cool Gandalf staff but forgot it when I laid it down to grab a picture.

The hikes are great and good for my health but honestly the best part of these hikes is spending quality time with Chris. With our days growing fewer and fewer every minute I get to spend with him is precious.. speaking of precious.. check out this pix (to the left).. it's one of my favorites that I took today.

After Vasquez we got back to my place around 11:50am, perfect timing as he wanted to leave at Noon. But before he left he wanted to transfer some photos from his phone to my computer. Well that took a few hours to figure it out but we finally did and he went through and shared years of photo with me. It was pretty AWESOME. Got to see "little" Chris, pixs of his Dad and family and so many other special moments. Even though he wanted to leave at noon he didn't leave my place until around 3ish which we were both cool with since we got to spend more one on one time with each other And the best part of all is I get to see him again in three days when he comes back down Thursday in preparation for Wondercon.

Alien Nation: The Newcomers Podcast Ep3

Show Notes

Brothers Kenny and Michael Mittleider review and discuss a short lived but very socially aware TV series from the late 80's early 90's ALIEN NATION. Each podcast we will review a single episode in sequential order starting with the Pilot. Will give you our thoughts on the episode as well as some fun behind the scenes information.

Today we cover Season 1, Episode 3 - Little Lost Lamb
Directed by Kevin Hooks
Written by Diane Frolov
Original air date September 25, 1989

Plot Summary: Sikes and George uncover a prostitution ring after a Newcomer prostitute, on the run from her pimp, is murdered in Sikes' apartment. Buck deals with his past with the help of Uncle Moodri.

Hope you enjoy it,
Kenny & Michael

Sunday, March 11, 2012

Jurassic Park Movie Marathon Day Two

Since everyone went to bed fairly early last night folks were up at 7:30am starting breakfast. This time Olivia was making pancakes while Kim and I cut strawberries and bananas for some toppings. Ashphord was making some sausages, while Aaron was helping with the clean up from yesterday. (Thanks Aaron)

After breakfast we all got ready for our hike to Vasquez Rocks. Jen had to leave so she did not join us for the hike. For this hike we had a goal (location) in mind and we wanted to all stick together.  I'm happy to say we did both. This was one of the more enjoyable hikes. There were some tough spots but everyone got through them. There were also some crazy spot for the more adventurous and nice flat areas for those less crazy. This is the first time that team leader Chris took us to a 30 foot drop that we couldn't get down so we had to back track a bit before finding our way back to the cars. But as I mentioned we all had a fantastic time on this hike. After the hike Will and Ashphord had to leave so we said our goodbyes.

After our goodbyes we headed back to my place to freshen up. We had planned to go to Islands but time was running out as we also planned to go to the movies to see John Carter. So instead we went to Baja Fresh, (thanks Chris for buying me lunch) which we did on our last movie marathon as well. Everyone seemed to enjoy it last time and it's quick and easy. Once lunch was over we lost another person, Kim.

We then headed over to the movie theater. I had never been to this one but we found it fairly easy. We got tickets (thanks Dallas for getting mine and to Chris for my drink, I was well taken care of today). And a big thanks for the Rusley brother who had a giant bag of candy for everyone to enjoy.

We made our way into the movie theater and it was a decent size with stadium seating, which is great. I sat between my two favorite guys and the movie started. John Carter is based on a book written back in 1911. The movie itself was good, a little slow paced but had some cool action scenes and special effects. I think what saves this movie for me was the story. It was a nice, not too complicated story and they really left no plot holes. It wasn't as action packed as I thought it was going to be but still a very enjoyable movie.

After John Carter we said goodbyes to Jes and Olivia who had to drive back up north. While driving back to my place Chris asked where the closest Red Box was so we headed to Albertsons. For the past few weeks Chris has been wanting to show me the movie "In Time" but again, like last week, both of the Red Boxes were out of In Time. So typical Chris says let's go buy it and off to Best Buy we go. Once at Best Buy we looked and looked until finally Robert found it and Chris bought it. On our drive home I plugged in my iphone to Chris' radio and we rock out to some of my favorite songs until we reach the dirt road to my house and I put on Cee Lo Green's F*ck You. Chris rolled down the windows and blasted it as we all (Chris, Robert, Rupert and I) sang along. I have to say this was one of my favorite moments of the weekend.

We get back to my place and of course the other car was already here and as I went inside to find Anthony giving my kitchen a quick clean (Thanks Anthony). Robert was going to leave but was intrigued by In Time and stuck around to watch it with us.. yay!!

Time to watch In Time. I wanted to see this when it was out in the theaters but didn't have time so I was really looking forward to it. If you don't know what this movie is about it stars Justin Timberlake and it's like a modern day Logan's Run. Where humans only live to the age of 25 before their clocks start and then they have to start working, begging or stealing time to prolong their lives but they will always remaining looking like they are 25. It's a very cool concept and idea. I kept looking over at Robert and saying.. that's just creep, the entire society living that way is just weird. But it was a very enjoyable movie and I extremely happy that Chris persisted on me seeing it.

After the movie Aaron and Dallas left followed by my new best bud Robert, he really didn't want to go but he had a weeks worth of horrible sleep and really needed some good night sleep before he went back to work tomorrow. So we said our sad goodbye and I headed back in with the group.

We still had Chris, Rupert, Anthony, Jennifer C., Doug and Kevin. Once again Chris grilled some delicious steaks for dinner that everyone enjoyed. We then sat down to watch Once Upon A Time latest episode. Now I love Once Upon A Time (it's my favorite show on TV) but I have to say watching it was others makes it even more enjoyable. Love tonight's episode all about Red Riding Hood (And man what a twist to her story) After Once the Rusley brothers left followed shortly after by Anthony and Jennifer leaving just Chris and I. We watched the latest Family Guy before calling it a night. Chris was staying the night as he took Monday off so we could hang more. (love him)

Once again like the past two days, this was an extremely fun filled day from morning to night. From breakfast, to the hike, to John Carter, to In Time, to the steaks and finally Once Upon A Time I couldn't have asked for a better day. In fact this weekend was just EPIC, with a guest list about half the size of the last party I had so much more fun not having to worry about so many people.

I was really hoping to make this movie marathon extra special for Chris because it will be his last for a while but he along with others made this extra special for me. I don't know what I did to deserve such great friends but I couldn't ask for any better. And what is great is I still get to spend another day with my best buy Chris... Monday awaits!!

Check out more pictures HERE