Saturday, May 19, 2012

80's Teen Movie Marathon

Got up early and made breakfast (biscuits and gravy) for everyone. Guests who arrived yesterday were Josh, Robert, Doug, Kevin, Jes, Aaron and Rupert. After breakfast it's normally Chris who rally's the troops and get's a game of extreme bocce ball but in his absence I took the reigns and got the game going. It was super hot but we played for a few hours before we couldn't take it anymore and came inside, Jes and I tied for the lead with 5 points each.

Adam and Jared arrived followed by Jennifer and Matt. I started up the BBQ and since my large grill is on the fritz I am using my coal burning one that I purchased for Chris' going away picnic. I got lunch ready while folks just hung out and visited.

While I was BBQing we started our first movie The Breakfast Club. This is one of my all time favorite 80's teen movie and was a must see for me for this marathon. Jen and Will joined us in the middle of this movie.

Picture a Day in May #19
I grabbed a really cool picture of the entire gang for my picture a day in May thing.

In between movies we would take a break, chat and visit for a half hour.

Our second movie for the marathon was 16 Candles, another classic teen movie that I just love. My buddy Luis also arrived then taking out total number of guests 15

It was getting close to dinner time so Robert and I went out to pick up some pizzas while we started the third movie of the marathon War Games.

We got back with dinner about halfway though the film so I didn't get to see much of it but I did get to enjoy the last half of it.

After the movie we headed out back to the deck as the sun was starting to set and I wanted to get some group pixs. Everyone stayed out there for a few hours enjoying the scenery and the company. Jen and Jerad had to leave

Matt had brought his telescope and as it got darker he showed us Venus and Mars but the real treat was seeing Saturn and one of it's moons (we're thinking Titan). That was one of my favorite moments of the night... it was pretty incredible. After this Jennifer and Matt left for the evening.

Unlike previous movie marathons the night normally consist of drinking and games but we never got any games going. We did start to drink, some of us drank a bit more then others. I had planned to get smashed but I was in some sort of funk and never really got drunk. And when I don't get drunk and everyone else around me does I can get a bit annoyed by some of their behaviors. It makes it really tough to have a good time. I manage to separate myself from the group and hide in my office. I didn't want to bring the entire party down. A few people noticed and asked me if I was okay and of course I said yes but I wasn't fooling anybody. I don't know why I was in this funky mood. I miss Chris, this was our first party without him and I'm sure it had something to do with him but it wasn't all about him. I was having a great time up to us coming in from outside and then something changed.. I have no idea what.

We played our fourth movie Spacecamp in the background while the party continued. 

I spent the next few hours trying to put on a good face and enjoy the party, I was somewhat successful. Normally were up until 3am but since we had to get up early for Ren Faire tomorrow I tried to get folks to go to bed by midnight.

In my room Josh shared my bed, while Robert and Rupert slept on air matteress' at the foot of the bed. Robert unfortunately was really sick and was hugging my trash can, Josh wasn't doing so well either and was out back on the porch getting some air while Rupert was inside my master bath having a heart to heart with Will. So my plans to go to bed early didn't quite work out. After all was said and done I think I finally got to sleep around 3am.

So Friday ended on a downer.. and now Saturday ended on a downer. This movie marathon weekend isn't turning out as I planned. Off to the Ren Faire tomorrow!!!

You can check out more pictures from the weekend HERE 

Friday, May 18, 2012

Movie Marathon Weekend Begins

Picture a Day in May #18
So my movie marathon weekends use to be Saturday and part of Sunday. I would have one or two people arrive a day early Friday night, normally because they came from a long distance. But the past four movie weekends more and more folks have been arriving on Friday.. they are now showing up around 2pm and we're actually having  a pre-weekend party. This time around it was no different.

Josh was the first to arrive and we got to spend some quality time together. He's one of my best friends and I don't get to see him nearly as much as I would like too. So it was nice that we got a few hours of just he and I before others arrived. Next up was Robert and then the Rusley twins (Doug and Kevin) arrived. By this time I was making some spaghetti with ground turkey for dinner.

After dinner the five of us went into the TV room and watched the first few episodes of Farscape.

Arriving towards the end of the night was Jes and Aaron. We were just sitting around chatting and visiting when my final guest Rupert arrived with a BANG!! Literally.. he ran though my back screen door and tore it up. Apparently he didn't see that my screen door was closed. That event kind of brought down what was a fun night (at least for me). And the the gang broke out into spontaneous sing along to Dr Horrible I did not participate.

It's not how I saw my night ending but tomorrow is always another day and everyone was okay, well except for the screendoor.. I'll need to replace that.

You can check out more pictures from the weekend HERE

Job Interview

Today I had an interview down in Santa Monica with a company called High Noon Entertainment. I answered one of there requests for a Post Production Supervisor for a new show. The gig runs 19 weeks and would start in the beginning of June. Not a fan that it's way out in Santa Monica (it will be a four hour round trip commute everyday) but I am greatly in need of a job and it's only for 19 weeks.

My appointment was for 10:30am which meant I had to leave my house by 8:30am. Traffic was just as I remembered and it sucked. Got to the building around 10:15 and waited about ten minutes in the parking structure until 10:25 when I made my way up to their offices. When I entered there was no one around so I stood there for about three or four minutes before someone came walking over and I asked them where I could find this person I was interviewing with (Director of Post). He didn't know who I was talking about and went to find out from someone else when a woman who initially contacted me about the job exited her office and greeted me. She brought me into her office were the Director of Post was waiting and the interview started.

I'm normally not nervous when interviewing as I've had gotten to the point of not really caring if I get the gig or not. But since I've been out of work for eight months now I really need this job so I was a bit nervous this time around. For the next half hour we talked about the job, my qualifications, and previous jobs. I thought it went really well. Towards the end I mentioned that if I did get the job that I would need off July 11 - 15 for comic con. Come to find out that the director of post is really into Lord of the Rings and I mentioned that I dressed up as a Hobbit last year for SDCC and luckily I had pictures on my phone. He showed me a picture of him siting in the Captain's chair on the TOS bridge and of course I showed him the picture of The Geek Mob all in Star Trek uniforms at Vasquez Rocks. He quizzed me on some LOTR trivia and I did pretty good, this went on for about 15 more minutes before the line producer finished the interview and said they would let me know next week sometime.

I left the interview feeling pretty good, I feel I'm exactly what they are looking for. I gave them my rate but did tell them that it's negotiable. All I can do now is wait.

When I got home I did send them an email thanking them for their time and wishing them all the best and I did get a great response from the line producer "Kenny,  I so enjoyed our meeting as well.  I don't think anyone has ever shown me Hobbit photos before in an interview.  I'll follow-up with you next week." So at the very least I made an impression.

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Harry's Truck part two

So I got up this morning and waited for the dealer to call me. I had to get the rental car back to Enterprise by 11:58 or be charged another day.

Spent the morning talking to my buddy Charles, my new co-host on my once named podcast Epic Geek Out. We were trying to come up with a new name for the podcast since Epic Geek Out is.. well Out. (Read previous blog for details). We came up with one that I loved The Good, The Bad, the Geek but there is already a podcast called The Good, The Bad and the Geeky. We came up with a few names "Our Geeky World" and "A Very Geeky Podcast" we both like these title but aren't totally in love with them.. so we are still brainstorming.

Still hadn't heard back from my dealer so I gave them a call to see check on the status, he said he would check and get back to me. Well and hour passed and now it was 11:15am and I wanted to make sure I got the rental car back before noon. So I headed out hoping to hear back from the dealer before I got there. Luckily he called me when I was about 15 minutes away and informed me that the truck was done and other then regular maintenance it's good to go. So I returned the rental car and then walked over to the dealer and picked up the truck. It's crazy because the parts cost me $50 but the labor was $325 (talk about rip off).. with taxes it was a grand total of $380.15.

Anyways I got home and just chilled and watched some recorded TV off my DVR.. I am so backed up on some shows.

I also pulled out all the alcohol for this coming weekends party and man is there alot. I took my Picture a Day in May #17 with it all.

Going to try and get some podcast editing done, really want to get a head start on some of my podcasts so I'm not editing the day before they are due.

Oh I did get a call for an interview for a post production supervisor job in Santa Monica. So I have that tomorrow morning... wish me luck.

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

U Snooze U Lose

As you know I'm a podcaster. I currently have five podcasts running and I'm working on a few others. One that I have been talking about since Oct. 2010 is called Epic Geek Out. It was suppose to be a 30 minute round table debate with a group of four or five guests. Well it never came to be. The logistics  and trying to get everyone together was just too difficult so I pushed it to the back burner.

Last year I interviewed my friend Charles from North Carolina for my Confessions of a Fanboy Podcast and we hit it off. We talked about doing a podcast together called Geek Wars, were we would debate geeky topics like Star Wars Vs. Star Trek. It would be a round table kind of debate with several different guests each podcast.

We since I already had a URL, gmail account, twitter and podbean account for Epic Geek Out I figured we'd just change the name to that to make it easier.

When I tried to get the URL for Epic Geek Out back in Oct 2010 it was taken so I go EGO.com instead. When I checked out EpicGeekOut.com it was a unused url. Well I just check it again today and it looks like they started posting stuff on there in June 2011. It's a video review show. Luckily it's not a podcast so it's still available on itunes. 

But I don't want people to think that, that website is associated with our podcast so it's looking like I'm going to have to change the name again.

When I was looking up "Geek" titles on itunes I saw a show called Geek Fight and when I read the description it sounded very familiar to what we wanted to do. So now I'm trying to figure out what I want to do next.. scrap the idea or do it anyways and hope there is an audience out there for it.

I know I really want to do a general geek podcast, just need to find the "hook" that makes it different from the hundreds of other geeky podcasts.

Harry's Truck

So Harry's truck has been sitting idol at the house since he left last August. He tried selling it when he was still here but we had no luck. That job fell to me once he left and I have to say I dropped the ball big time. Part of it was me being lazy, but the bigger part was the engine light started to come on a few weeks after he left and I just didn't have the time or really wanted to take it into the dealer to have it checked. See when you take it to the dealer it can take hours for them to check and I didn't want to be bothered so I put it off and put it off for eight months.. It just sat there in my yard. Finally Harry put a fire under my butt and got me to commit to taking it to Car Max to see what they would offer for it and in order to get the best price I had to take it to the dealer to have it checked.

Well I did that today, had an appointment at 9am (was hoping this would prevent me from waiting a long time). When I dropped it off they said it would be at least two hours before they could even tell me what was wrong, if anything. So I left it and walked over to a local mall. It was still early and the stores were closed and movies didn't start until around noon. So I sat in the courtyard and got out my ipad and watched an episode of Star Trek The Next Generation.

I finally got a call around 11am and they informed me that there was rodent infestation in the engine (damn country living), but the big thing was the #4 cylinder injector and coil circuit were bad and needed to be replaced. They estimated it would cost me about $380, being out to work sucks but I know that when we do sell this truck I will recoup the money. The bigger issue was the fact that I had to leave the truck with them and I their shuttle only goes 10 miles and I live 21 miles away. So I was stuck in Valencia.

I put the call out on Twitter and Facebook asking for a ride and after waiting an hour there were no takers. Of course I got alot of people saying they would if they didn't live out of state :) So I had to walk over to Enterprise car rental and get a car for the day. This would cost me $55 for the day.

I finally got home around 12:30pm and was suppose to have lunch with my Mom but I called and told her about the whole ordeal and asked if we could reschedule our lunch which of course she said she was fine with.

Spent the rest of the day around the house getting ready for the upcoming movie marathon. Cleaning and such. I did mange to get out to the super market to pick up some groceries but I tried to motivate myself to do some podcasting and that didn't happen.. instead I caught up on a some TV that I had recorded on my DVR.

I did manage to take Picture a Day in May #16, I couldn't think of what picture I wanted to do so I just did an extreme close up (kind of scary).

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Picture a Day in May #15

Well I'm halfway through my Picture a Day in May experiment. So far I think folks are liking it. I know I'm really enjoying trying to come up with picture ideas everyday. Here's my latest.. I was out pulling weeds and thought this would make a good pix for today.

Geekyfanboy Productions Itunes Page


Check out my itunes pages. It shows all five of my podcasts.. it's pretty awesome. You can check it out HERE

MASH 4077 Podcast Episode 31

Spent the morning editing the latest MASH 4077 Podcast. Seems like I can never get ahead these days with podcasting. But I guess in the end I got the podcast done on the day it's due to be released. So here's the latest MASH 4077 Podcast
 
Download from itunes http://tinyurl.com/MASH4077itunes or listen/direct download http://MASH4077Podcast.com
 
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 #7 - L.I.P
31st Episode Overall

Directed by William Wiard
Written by Carl Kleinschmitt, Larry Gelbart, Laurence Marks
Production code K406
Original air date October 27, 1973

Set during the Korean War in the 1950’s

Plot Summary: Hawkeye is at the movies with his date, Regina, a nurse, but after the movie she brings the date to a swift end with a handshake. Back at the Swamp, he is called to take a look at the sick baby of a US soldier, who reveals he is being shipped home soon and that he and the baby's Korean mother are not officially married, and asks Hawkeye for help in clearing through Army red tape so they can be married. Meanwhile, Hawkeye and Regina embark on another date, finally sharing a kiss. However, a third date is postponed when an officer from I-Corps arrives to interview Hawkeye as a character witness for the soldier's marriage application. Hawkeye and Trapper decide to blackmail the I-Corps officer to ensure a favourable outcome. When Hawkeye is finally free to see Regina and explains the events of the evening, she voices her opposition to interracial marriage, at which point Hawkeye ends their date and leaves.

At the end of the episode, the baby's parents are married in a ceremony officiated by Father Mulcahy.

Monday, May 14, 2012

Firefly Marathon Continues

My bestie Robert and I have been hanging out at least once a week for a few months. Recently, the past few weeks we've been doing dinner and Firefly. We've been watching three episodes every week. Tonight we picked up some Italian food and we watched four episodes of Firefly this evening. Out of Gas (which is my favorite episode), then Ariel (which is my second favorite), followed by another great episode War Stories and ended the night with Trash (this episode never aired on FOX).

We only have three more episodes and then the movie Serenity left to watch but it's awesome going back and watching this great series especially with my best friend and a person who has never seen it.

Two more weeks to finish this series and then will pick another series that he's never seen to start watching.

Side note.. I took my Picture a Day in May #14 with Robert.

Best Morning Ever!!

Got 10 hours of sleep today.. it wasn't a solid sleep but it's what I needed. Got up around 8am and had a text from Chris letting me know that he was ready to watch Once Upon a Time. So I grabbed some yogurt and fruit for breakfast and started up the TV and DVR.

Now that Chris is in Montana of course we can't watch TV in the same room but what we do is both record the episode and then call each other and say start at the same time and watch "together". We chat via facebook, skype or texting during the commercials. It's not the best but it's all we can do right now.

So we started the finale of Once Upon a Time and OMG (I plan on doing a entire blog on Once Upon a Time season one), needless to say we both loved it. We talked on the phone for about fifteen minutes when he asked if I had seen New Girl season finale, which I hadn't so we watched that together as well. I then called him back and we chatted for the next hour and a half. Got him all caught up on the going ons in The Geek Mob. We updated each other on our lives.. we went through all his rafting pictures on Facebook and watched the latest episode of Felicia Day's Flog.

It's funny, Chris and I chat online via skype, facebook, texting or minecraft at least once every few days, if not every day. But there is nothing that compares to actually talking to a person over the phone, to hear their voice, their laugh it just warms the heart. I miss Chris everyday which is odd because it's only been a month since I said goodbye to him and I've gone months without seeing him before and never missed him this much. I'm sure it's partly because we've grown very close over the year and the fact that we can't just jump in a car and drive a few hours to see each other.

Needless to say I plan on calling him at least once a week from here on out to chat, which I'm sure he will just love :) (Yay.. he doesn't really like to talk over the phone, which makes it that much more enjoyable for me)

Anyways.. my day is far from over.. got some podcasting to do and then later having dinner and watching Firefly with Robert (blogs to follow).

Wish I could start all my morning like todays!! Thanks Chris.

Sunday, May 13, 2012

On Set of My Gimpy Life (Final Day)

Picture a Day in May #13
Didn't sleep too well, whenever I have to be up super early I always wake up every few hours. Finally got up around 4:30am, took a shower and went out into the living room. Jes, Anne and Nicki were all getting ready and to my surprise Rupert was there getting ready as well. I guess he crashed at my place last night unbeknownst to me. The five of us got ready and were out the door by 5:15am. We had to be in Los Angeles by 6:30am and I live at least an hour and ten from where we need to be. Jes drove herself, while Anne and Nicki went together and I drove Rupert. We got there a little after 6am, which goes to show you that if there is no traffic you can get to down town Hollywood in about 50 minutes from my place.

We shoot several scenes from The Guild including Cheesybeards at this same location, it was fun being back. There were lots of extra today, around 30 and during the morning I helped get them settled in upstairs. Now My Gimpy Life used a service called LA Extras as well as getting some Guild of Extras (besides Rupert, Jes, Anne and Nicki. Aaron, Jen, Heather and Ashphrod joined us as well.) And I noticed how different the two groups were. I mean I've dealt with a large group of extras when we shoot season five of The Guild we had hundreds but the difference was they were fans and were doing this to be part of The Guild. These LA Extra folks were rude, down right mean and very demanding. I really didn't care for 2/3's of them.

Anyways the shoot went great and we finished the final shoot of the day and that was a picture wrap on My Gimpy Life. I got some great interviews and I'm looking forward to editing these companioncasts and releasing them with new episodes.

After the shoot I headed home to find Rupert still at my house hanging out. I did a few things around the house but having a guest here makes it difficult to really get into editing of my next MASH podcast and what not. Instead we watched some TV and chatted. He left around 8:30pm and I got ready for bed as I couldn't concentrate on editing podcasts or doing anything else.

The finale of Once Upon a Time was on tonight but I wanted to wait and watch it with Chris since it kind of became our show to watch together.. so instead I watched some Simpsons before going to bed.