Saturday, March 23, 2013

Hiking, Gaming and Nar

Half my day was spent hanging with my friend Heather and the other half was playing Lord of the Rings with my bestie Chris.

Heather, who is visiting from Arizona is someone I met because of The Guild. We were both fans and we both worked on it, me doing BTS, extra and podcasts and she being an extra. We became Facebook and Twitter friends and would see each other from time to time at Cons. This was going to be the first time we actually got to hang out one on one and spend some time together.

I planned to take her to Vasquez Rocks and go hiking, she's really into fitness stuff so I figured she's never been and it's a great place to get a good workout. We actually did a nice steady hike before attacking the iconic peak of Vasquez Rocks. I went all the way to the peak and Heather went about 2/3'ds the way up. It was a really fun two hours of hiking and climbing. We talked about everything. I really got to know Heather alot better then just a few words here and there on social media.

One surprise for me was running into my friend Nar Williams on the peak of Vasquez Rocks. I appeared on an episode of his webseries Fanboy Funhouse years ago, to promote Knights of the Guild. Nar has hosted many shows on the web and TV (Science of the Movies was my favorite). I haven't seen him in a few years but he was coming down the hill as I was going up and he stopped and yelled out " I know you!!! " It was great seeing him. We chatted for about ten minutes, catching up on each others lives before going our separate ways. What's really great about Nar is I am a huge fan of his. I actually only met him one time (while on his show). Though we have talked from time to time on social media.. but still the fact that he remembers me after a few years was pretty awesome.

After hiking we went out to Chipotles for some lunch before calling it a day and saying out goodbye. It was a very nice visit.

Afterwards I jumped online and hooked up with my buddy Chris next. We haven't been able to play LOTRO together for over a month. He's been busy with studying/work promotion test. This was the first time in ages that we were going to play together. We spent the next five hours (non-stop) questing, killing orcs and having a great time. It was a nice way to end my Saturday.

Friday, March 22, 2013

A Nice End To My Week

So with my new routine in place I started my day once again by looking for a new job (nothing yet). I then finished my MASH podcast, there wasn't much left to do other then upload the file and create the show notes. I then moved onto to working on things for the webseries. Preparing for a webseries is a lot of prep work and we really haven't even gotten into it yet. The writing is coming along, I should be sitting down with Chris this weekend and working on some key scenes with him.

Wootstock tickets went on sale today. Now I went to Wootstock last year and enjoyed it but it's not something I have to go to every year like it is for most of my friends. Plus the $50 ticket price is just to rich for my blood, but several of my friends Olivia and Chris were at work and couldn't get tickets so I purchased several seats for them, but getting to that point was an choir as I was texting both and both were super busy and weren't getting back to me fast enough that seats I had selected were being bought out from under me. In the end it all worked out and I got them their seats right next to each other.. so all is well.

Did a little bit more webseries stuff before taking a break for lunch and headed out to El Pollo Loco, on my way back I decided to go for a hike at Vasquez Rocks and spent the next hour roaming around that park.. it was quiet and peaceful. I sat on a peak for about 20 minutes just lost in my thoughts.

Got back home and watched a bit of TV that I recorded.. I'm still very behind in my TV watching.

I then played a few hours of Lord of the Rings Online and ended my night joining my friends in a Google Hangout. I came in a few hours after it had started around 8pm. But it lasted until midnight when it was just Chris and I. They are also alot of fun. While I was there in the chat was Aaron, Kim, Robert, Doug, Kevin, Chris and Chris' Pac Man game. It was a nice way to end the week.

Thursday, March 21, 2013

Getting Into A Routine

So this has become my new routine and I think I like it. Today I started my day by taking a half hour and looking for a new job, I then worked on editing a podcast (MASH 4077), Writing/Working on my webseries and playing Lord of the Rings Online the rest of the day. What is different then other days is I did each of these things all day long. So after looking for work, I started editing my MASH 4077 podcast for about an hour then stopped, then I worked on my webseries for an hour or so and stopped. Played a few hours of LOTRO and stopped and then started working on the podcast again and so on. Every few hours I would stop what I was doing and move on to something else.

It really kept me busy all day and I never got to overwhelmed or bored with one thing. I think this how I will do things from here on out. Instead of working on my podcasts for six or seven hours straight and being burnt out by the end so that I don't don't another one I'll take my time through out the day to finish it. Same goes with writing my webseries. I'll get writers block and instead of getting frustrated and write something horrible I'll just stop and move to something else and then in a few hours come back to it fresh and new.

I don't know why I never thought about doing this before.. would have saved me a lot of wasted time.

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

LOTRO, Podcasts, Webseries & Buffy

Started my morning with a few hours of LOTRO play. Then switched gears and figured I'd get a head start on editing the next episode of my MASH 4077 podcast. I mean it is due to be released on April 1st. Spent about an hour stringing out the three hosts audio, I got everything synced and ready to go. I went to check the audio from the actual episode and realized something was wrong and I spent the next three or so hours trying to figure out why the conversions were not working. It was very frustrating but in the end I manage to get at least one episode (the one I needed) to work but by that time I didn't feel like editing the podcast anymore so I pushed it off.. I hope to finish it off tomorrow.

I worked once again on my new webseries. Now that it's been announced I feel obligated to get it written sooner then later. I don't feel rushed, just enough pressure to get it done. I'm also working on setting up a photo shoot for the main characters and getting the logo created. I think once the logo is created and we reveal the name of the show will also reveal the story and the actors. I'm looking forward to getting all this info out there... stay tuned.

My evening was once again spent with one of my best buds... Robert. We had some pizza and wings and continued my Buffy rewatch and his 1st time viewing. We are in my middle of season four.. first for the night was "Goodbye Iowa", it was an okay episode.. not my favorite. Next we watched "This Years Girl", this was the return of Faith and I completely forgot about this episode. I wasn't happy as I was never a big Faith fan and I was hoping that her story was over. And of course the ending when those two switch bodies it all came back to me on what the next episode was going to be about and I really wasn't happy. That leads us to "Who Are You", and I have to say it was better then I remembered. I was really worried about it but in the end it was a very well done episode. Our final episode of the evening was "Superstar". I think this was Robert's favorite of the night. This episode had us laughing out loud and was the perfect way to end our Buffy viewing for the evening. A few more viewings and we will be done with Season 4 and move onto Season Five where everything changes. It also has my favorite big bad "Glory"... cant' wait.

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Gaming, Yard Work & WebSeries

Today started with a bit of job search, unfortunately there isn't much out there for my line of work. I'll continue my search tomorrow.

After the job search I played LOTRO for a few hours, not doing much questing just building up my bank account. I've been joining various fellowships and battling with them. This way we all benefit with extra XP and loot.

After lunch I decided to go outside and clean up. The past few weeks we've had some pretty gusty winds and things have been blown around. Alot of debris, mostly trash has been blown onto my property. I also had a bag of aluminum cans that the crows ripped open and were also blown all over the place. So I spent a half hour or so walking around my property cleaning up. I spent another hour pulling weeds. Since we got all that rain and snow the weeds are going to be bad this season. Figured I'd get a head start on removing them.

Spent another few hours writing for my webseries. It's funny how some dialogue just flows out of me and other stuff I just struggle with. I've wrote a bit for episode 103, 104 and 105. First draft for 103 is done, I hope to get 104 or 105 done by the end of the week.

I watched some TV and played a bit more LOTRO before calling it a night.

My Secret Project


I have posted about this "secret project" since July of 2012 and it kind of lost some steam the past few months but it's back and going full force. This secret was only known to a select group of people who will be participating in it. But now you all will know, well kind of. I'm not going to into great details.. yet. But I am announcing that my secret project is ::drum roll please::  my very own webseries. Not only am I co-writing it but I'm also going to be acting in it (I'm one of the leads), how scary is that thought.

It all started when Chris and I were in the back seat of Jes' car as we drove up to San Diego Comic Con last year (2012). We were talking and all of a sudden this thought came to me and I told Chris about it and you could see the light bulb go off and for the next few hours we worked out the concept, the characters, some of the storyline, everything just flowed... it was awesome.

From July 2012 to December 2012 Chris and I have skyped, texted, facebooked and actually talked on the phone about this project.

Chris and I come up with the idea/storyline and then I take a crack at writing the dialogue, Chris will then read it and give notes and make changes until both of us are happy. We opened episode one script to several of our close friends for their input, but that was a mistake. I was not prepared for those who read it to pick apart my writing/story.  It took a good week or so to recover and I have to say that I'm not upset with those you criticized my work, it actually made me a better writer.

When I was done with the script for episode 1 I sent it to my buddy Sean Becker (Director of The Guild and many other things). After he read it we talked for an hour and he gave me a ton of notes. Some I agreed with, some I never even thought of and some I totally disagreed with. What was great about Sean is that he said take the notes or don't take the notes. This is yours and Chris' project, you guys "own" it. It's your vision.

After that I was fine with hearing what others had to say. I knew that Chris and I were writing it. Others could suggests things and if we like them we could implement them, but if we didn't, no harm done.

We have the entire season planned out (I won't say how many episodes just in case it changes). We have first drafts scripts for episodes 101, 102, & 103. First drafts of episode 104 and 105 are close to being finished and the rest are at the outline stage.

We hope to have all the episodes written by SDCC this year. So that leaves us roughly four months. Don't have any idea of when we were shoot it or when it will be released. The group of people that I'm doing this with are all Guildies. We've all been extras and want to take a crack at making our own series.

I think for me it's more about the process, it's writing it with my best friend, it's planning things out with people who mean the world to me. None of us are taking it super serious. It's more about a group of friends coming together and making something that we would watch. Will it be good.. who know, I hope so but truly all that matters is that we have a great time making it.. that's what is important to me.

I'll be posting more about it as time passes.. we have a twitter account but I can't announce it until we announce the show title and concept.. which will be soon... stay tuned!!!

Monday, March 18, 2013

Job Hunt, Fun Lunch & Comic Book Men

Today I official start looking for a new job. I took two weeks off (well really a week and a half) to recoup. I'll hit my usual job sites and start getting word out that I'm looking. Hopefully something will pop up in the next few weeks. I applied for unemployment but have yet heard if I'm going to get it or not.

Met up with my friend America at CPK (California Pizza Kitchen). I don't get to see America as much as I would like but the times we do get together are fantastic and this one was no different. I was finally able to give her, her half of the case of Smarties that my buddy Steve sent from Canada. We sat in the restaurant and chatted for about 2 1/2 hours. One of many great thing about America is that she and I can talk about anything. We talked geeks, we talked personal, we talked about life in general. I told her about my "coming" out story. It was a great visit. We said our goodbyes and made tentative plans to get together next week or lunch as well.. can't wait.

After lunch I headed over to Barnes and Noble to see if I could find the Willow sequel novels "The Chronicles of the Shadow Wars" but no luck,  I think I'll have to buy them online. Afterwards I drove over to Micheal's art supply store to look for buttons for me two vests that I have for me Hobbit cos-play, alas no luck, but I haven't given up hope yet.

When I got home I watched a bit of TV from my DVR. One show that I enjoyed last year is "Comic Book Men" Here's a brief synopsis: Comic Book Men is an American reality television series airing on the AMC network. It is set at Kevin Smith's comic book shop, Jay and Silent Bob's Secret Stash, in Red Bank, New Jersey. There are three guys who work there Walt, Mike and Ming and another guy who just hangs out Brian. The show is basically these four guys talking geek, people bring in things to sell, they do certain events for the store. Kevin Smith shows up here and there. Inter cut with the episode are the live recording of the companion podcast they do for the show. It's a really fun show, the guys are entertaining and they speak to the geek in me. The first season ran 6 one hour episodes.. but for season two they got 16 half hour episodes. Anyways I watched about 3 hours worth of episodes. 

I ended my day with some LOTRO play. All I'm doing is really building my bank with gold, silver and copper. Haven't really done much questing the past few days. I did find out that if you go to the Barrow Downs and join a fellowship in one of the caves you can really rack up some $$.

Sunday, March 17, 2013

Podcasting, Friends & Once

Today I got up, played an hour or so of LOTRO and watched some recorded TV off my DVR. My friend Aaron came over and we hung out for an hour or so before Rupert and Robert joined Aaron as they went off to play paintball (which is near my place, hence why the met up here). I was suppose to go but I had to record several episodes of my MASH 4077 Podcast. So at 12:30 I jumped on skype with my buddies/co-hosts Al and Meds. For the next few hours we recorded six episodes of our MASH 4077 Podcast... it was a lot of fun.

When I was done I could have gone to paintball for an hour but instead I decided to watch a bit more recorded TV (I'm so far behind on my shows). The guys got back around 5ish and we headed out to dinner. We went to Islands as we haven't been there in a while. It was great hanging with the guys, we had some good food, great laughs and fantastic company.

When we got home Aaron had to take off (he lives down in San Diego), but Robert and Rupert decided to stay and watch a movie. We opted for one that we all saw but loved, Wreak-it-Ralph. Such a well animated, well acted and well told story. That was finished around 8:30pm and the guys said their goodbyes and headed home (only to realized when they got to Robert's place (an hour away), Rupert had left his keys at my house and they had to drive all the way back here, felt really bad for Robert.)

After those guys left I got onto Facebook chat with my bestie Chris and we watched the latest two episodes of Once Upon A Time. Since we can't be in the same room to watch, this is the next best thing. Once Upon A Time continues to impress me. These last two episodes were amazing, so much stuff is happening. I can't wait to see how they are going to end this season, if it's anything like season one we are in for a real adventure.

Spent the last hour of the day playing some LOTRO, I can't wait until Chris is done with his promotion studying so he can start playing again. We haven't played together since mid February.