My Life As A Geek

A Healither Me - Day 11

2012-02-02T21:24:00.000-08:00

I wasn't about to workout during the day as planned and in turn it effected my workout.

Today's Workout:

30 minutes of cardio on the elliptical

3 sets of 10 on the front leg press (45 lbs)
3 sets of 10 on the back leg press (45 lbs)
3 sets of 10 on the free weight (110 lbs)

I struggled with the cardio.. about 10 minutes in I was going to stop at 15 but then a good song came on the ipod and next thing I knew it was 16 minutes and I will only stop in increments of 5 so I would go to 20 but then at 20 I figured it was only 10 more minutes to 30 so I continued and got my full cardio in. This is my light weights day so that wasn't an issue. Hopefully tomorrow I'll get my early workout in.

New Look and Tire Woes (Vlog)

2012-02-02T19:04:00.000-08:00

Here's another Video blog.. gonna try and do more of these. Let me know what you think.

England on Hold

2012-02-01T20:14:00.000-08:00

I was beyond excited that I was finally going to travel to England and Ireland, it's been a dream of mine for such a long time and this May was it. I was going to do it no matter what. I didn't care that I haven't had a job in four months. I didn't care that my savings is almost gone. I kept telling myself I was going to go no matter what.

Damn me for being such a responsible person...

I have thought long and hard about the decision to postpone my trip and I feel at this time that it's the right one. I know that I should not spend thousands of dollars that I don't really have on a trip right now. I mean I do have a mortgage and no job. Finding a job should be my priority.

Does it suck.. oh yeah big time and it's killing me to have to put it off once again but I am going to get to England/Ireland and in fact get to all of Europe in the near future. That's my goal and once I get a job and save some money back up I'm booking my flight.. there's no stopping me.

A Healthier Me - Day 10

2012-02-01T16:11:00.000-08:00

Well didn't quite workout in the morning as planned but I did manage to get out there at around 12:30pm.

40 minutes of cardio on the elliptical

3 sets of 10 on the chest fly for my chest (75 lbs)
3 sets of 10 on the curl arm for my biceps (45 lbs)
3 sets of 10 for shoulders (45 lbs)
3 sets of 10 on the front leg press (45 lbs)

Really happy I got my workout done earlier in the day. I seem to have more energy, hence why I went a bit longer on my cardio. Everything else felt great. Gonna try and keep the workout in the morning/afternoon.

MASH 4077 Podcast Episode 25

2012-02-01T09:18:00.000-08:00

Knights of the Guild Podcast Ep 39

2012-02-01T09:11:00.000-08:00

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

Today’s show features:

~ Season Five Interviews with Extras continue with; Chris, Kim, Kristina, Rachelle, Blake, Rebecca, Samantha and Shanna

Thank you again for all your support, I do this podcast because I am a fan myself and love taking other fans behind the scenes of this great webseries.

~Kenny~

A Healthier Me - Day 9

2012-01-31T21:32:00.000-08:00

Well I dragged my tired butt out to the garage to do my workout.. Thanks to several of you who gave me encouragement via text, facebook and my blog.. I really appreciate it.

Today's Workout:

30 minutes of cardio on the elliptical

3 sets of 10 on the front leg press (45 lbs)
3 sets of 10 on the back leg press (45 lbs)
3 sets of 10 on the free weight (110 lbs)

Once I got out there the workout was fine, I even woke up a bit and feel pretty good at the moment. I know I'll crash in an hour and hopefully get a good night sleep. I think I'm going to try and workout in the morning/afternoon so I don't run into this problem of being too tried to workout again.

Insomnia and Podcasts

2012-01-31T20:14:00.000-08:00

I had the worst time sleeping this last night/morning. I don't know if it was because I worked out later then I normally do (10pm) but I tossed and turned all night and into the morning. I think I slept a total of a few hours before I finally couldn't take it anymore and got up at 9am.

Since I didn't sleep well I kind of had a sluggish day. I listen to some podcasts and finally finished editing my next Alien Nation podcast, which makes me happy.. but looking back at the day I'm not sure really what I did. I didn't watch much TV and the editing only took about four hours.. but for the life of me I can't figure out what I did today.

Debating on working out tonight. Half of me says I should force myself to go out there but another part of me who is exhausted and can barely keep his eyes open is saying go to bed, but then the other part keeps saying it's only 8pm.. too early for bed. I love these internal debates and at this time as I'm writing this blog I really don't know what I'm going to do... all I know is if and when I go to sleep, I hope I can sleep throughout the night.

A Healthier Me - Day 8

2012-01-30T23:08:00.000-08:00

Today was an extremely lazy day. I didn't do much other then watch some TV. Watched the latest Once Upon a Time and totally loved it. It was the back story for Sydney (aka Man in mirror). Got some more story from the fantasy world and the present world things are moving along nicely. It's only been 11 episodes but I feel like we've gotten so much yet have learned so little. Can't wait to see where this season goes.

I did get out today and go to the Post Office and grab some lunch. I'm trying to get out more often and not stay in this house day in and day out.

I pretty much was on the computer all day not doing much. At 10pm I realized that I hadn't workout today.. so I mustered up the strength and went outside and did my work out.

Since it's Monday I weight myself this morning 207.5

That's a pound and half less then last Monday so I'm moving in the right direction.

Today's Workout:

30 minutes of cardio on the elliptical

3 sets of 10 on the chest fly for my chest (75 lbs)
3 sets of 10 on the curl arm for my biceps (45 lbs)
3 sets of 10 for shoulders (45 lbs)
3 sets of 10 on the front leg press (45 lbs)

It was a tougher workout then usual because I was so lazy today it was hard for me to get motivate to get out there especially since 10pm is the time I watch the news and start to wind down.. but I did it and got through it.

Disneyland Sunday

2012-01-29T23:59:00.000-08:00

Got up early to head out to Disneyland. I normally don't go on weekends because it's always so busy. But my friend Sue is visiting from New York and will be there today. Sue and I meet in a sci fi forum called Treks in Sci Fi years ago. We've chatted via twitter but never met in person. Our paths almost crossed when I went on my trip to Florida as her trip to Florida was just ending and she was at the airport an hour before my plane arrived. Anyways I was really looking forward to meeting her face to face. There was a bit of traffic so I got to Disneyland around 10:30am and as expected it was packed. By the time I parked the car, got on the tram and through security it was 11am.

After a few texts I met up with Sue over by the Castle. I had never seen what Sue looked like, so before I left I quickly looked up a picture of her just so I had a general idea. We quickly found each other and as with other online friends that I have met in person.. it's like there is an instant bond there. It's as though you've been friends for years (which we have). She was joined by three of her other friends Amy, Lisa and Kate. We said our hellos and then started walking around Disneyland. Since I live here and visit Disneyland often I didn't have any plans other then to hang out with Sue and her friends.

After an hour they were going to head over to California Adventure since they pretty much did Disneyland yesterday and I was hungry so we parted ways as they headed over to the other park I went over to the Little Red Wagon for a delicious corn dog and apple slices. When I finished up, my buddy Anthony texted me that he was on the tram heading in. He and my friend Andrew both said they would join me at Disneyland, Andrew pulled out yesterday but Anthony was on his way so I finished up and then headed to the front to greet my friend.

Anthony arrived and we hugged our hellos we made our way to California Adventures. I texted the girls to see where they were at and could really figure it out when suddenly we ran into them. They were all heading to lunch and Anthony was hungry as well so we joined them. We spent the next five hours walking around the park doing rides and such. It was the four girls and us 2 boys so Anthony and I had a lot of male bonding time... which is always nice. I mean the weekend I nursed Anthony back to health after his motorcycle accident I learned alot about him, but he's a man of many stories and I haven't quite heard them all.

Starting at the top it's Me, then going right,
Anthony, Lisa, Amy, Kate & Sue

We finally parted ways with the ladies as they were doing World of Color and Anthony's friend Rachel was joining us for some fun. We said our goodbyes and met up with Rachel. We grabbed a bite to eat before heading back to Disneyland to ride Star Tours and then Indiana Jones before saying goodbye to Rachel as both Anthony and I had were going to our friend Leslie's birthday party which happened to be at The House of Blues at Downtown Disney.

So we headed over there and didn't see anyone, we waited out front and our friends Rupert, Luis and the Rusley Twins, Kevin and Doug showed up. We decided to kill some time and walk over to the Lego store. Well someone, can't remember who, got the idea to make a Leslie Lego figure so we spent the next half hour trying to assemble one.

Party was suppose to start at 9pm.. but the birthday girl was running late. She finally showed up around 10pm which is when we happen to finally leave the Lego store. We said our Happy Birthdays.. presented her with the Legos which she really liked. We had cake and chatted for a bit. Around 11pm I was spent and said my goodbyes and headed home. Got home a little after midnight, watched some Simpson's before falling asleep around 1am

Thanks to Sue, Amy, Lisa, Kate, Rachel, Leslie, Rupert, Luis, Kevin, Doug and especially Anthony for making today a pretty crazy but super fun day.

Busy Saturday

2012-01-28T22:35:00.000-08:00

Started my day working on my next episode of Alien Nation: The Newcomers Podcast. Got the majority of it done, all I have left is to add audio bites and then polish the whole thing. Output, convert it and upload it. But that will happen in a few days.

I noticed that my last job Chelsea Settles added my credits to my IMDB (Internet Movie Data Base) page. You can check out things I have worked over my career. It doesn't have everything but I'm very proud of the amount of work I have done over the years.

Also worked on my new personal website. Mainly working on the main website at first and then linking to my older pages from my other website until I have time to go through and re-do them all to wordpress. I'll be unavailing it fairly soon... stay tuned.

Did alot of catching up on TV shows on my DVR. One that I recorded and really surprised me on how much I love it.. and when I say love it I mean LOVE it. It's called Lost Girl. It's a Canadian TV series that's been out for a little over a year. Well they finally started airing it here on Syfy. I've only seen two episodes but man has it got me hooked. The characters are engaging, the writing is funny and witting. I'm loving the mythology so far. It reminds me alot of Buffy and Joss Whedon's writing. Really looking forward to seeing where they series goes.

Working Out & Hanging with Leo

2012-01-27T20:34:00.000-08:00

Once again got up and had oatmeal for breakfast. I didn't eat so healthy yesterday so today I planned to do better. Spent the morning online working on my new website. My buddy Leo and I have been chatting about hiking at Vasquez Rocks, both of us are trying to get into better shape. So around noon he messaged me and asked if I wanted to hiking today.. of course I said yes and we made plans to meet at my place at 2.

Leo arrived and we headed over to Vasquez Rocks. This was Leo's first time so I kind of let him take the lead and for the next hour and a half we walked all over that place. Great thing about hiking is you get to chat. So he and I chatted and got to know each other a bit better. I also got to hear some things that happen at my movie marathon weekends that I was unaware of. I guess being drunk and hanging with others at the party means you don't know everything that's going on. Anyways we had a great time and a very good hike.

After the hike we came back to my place and we went out to my garage to work out. Leo has a bad bicep and attempted to work out but was in too much pain to really continue. So I did my workout while we chatted some more. It's nice having company while working out.

Today's Workout:

1 hour and 30 minutes of cardio on while hiking

3 sets of 10 for shoulders (45 lbs)
3 sets of 10 on the front leg press (45 lbs)
3 sets of 10 on the chest fly for my chest (75 lbs)
3 sets of 10 on the curl arm for my biceps (45 lbs)
3 sets of 10 on the free weight (110 lbs)

After the work out we headed back inside and decided to watch a movie. Leo hasn't really seen alot of the cool sci fi and fantasy films of the 80's so I decided to show him a classic... Ghostbusters. After the movie we said our goodbyes and he headed back home and I had some dinner.

Two days in a row hanging with friends.. too bad this isn't the norm. Gonna spend the rest of the night working on my Alien Nation Podcast.

Hanging with Rupert

2012-01-26T23:48:00.000-08:00

Today I got up and had a few slices of toast with peanut butter. Then started editing my next Alien Nation podcast. Around 1pm my buddy Rupert came over and we planned to hang out and watch some 80's sci fi and fantasy movies. I'm having another movie marathon at the end of February and it's going to be a 1980's Scifi/Fantasy movie marathon weekend. I currently have a list and folks who are attending are voting so we opted to watch movies that are not getting the votes and that we will not be watching that weekend. So we started with Krull, this is one of my favorite 80's scifi/fantasy movie and I know some folks think it's cheesy and I can see that but I remember seeing this in the theater way back when, I was 13, and we didn't have alot of fantasy/sci fi so this movie really is close to my heart and always will be. It was also cool so see that "unknown" actors stared in it that are big stars now like Liam Neeson and Robbie Coltrane. Had a great time watching this again.

We then went out to lunch, I didn't go healthy and that's something I need to work out. When I'm hanging out with friends (which isn't that often) but I need to either make food for us or choose wisely. Today we went to Pizza Hut and got some pepperoni pizza, break sticks, buffalo wings and poppers. It's all bad but taste so good. The only plus was that we got this so late that it became our lunch/dinner.

While we were eating lunch/dinner we started to watch Time Bandits. Another great movie from the 80's but one that I haven't seen often. I've owned the bluray for a few months but this is the first time that I'm watching it. I have to say how disappointed I was with the picture quality. They did clean up the print at all. It was like watching it on the movie screen, scratches all over the screen. Luckily I enjoy the movie so I could set aside the way it looked. One thing I totally forgot about this movie was the ending. The kid's house burns down and then his parents touch pure evil and blow up and then the kid is left alone at his burnt out house. Talk about a depressing ending... but still it's a bizarre yet entertaining story and the cast is great.

After Time Bandits we watched The Last Starfighter. Again like Time Bandits I had this on bluray and this was the first time watching it. Now this is in my top 10 scifi movies of all time. I remember seeing this in the theater and being totally enthralled. One thing I noticed about this movie this time around and I don't know if it's because of the hirez or just that it's been a few years since I saw it but man is the CG bad (this was the first movie to do full CG). Everytime they would go to a CG scene it pulled me out of the movie which it's never done before. Now I still LOVE this movie, the story is great, the acting is good and the concept is very original. I love the ships and of course my favorite move that I still haven't never seen before and since.. the Death Blossom!!! Good stuff all around.

After Last Starfighter we decided to have a change of pace and watch a show that my buddy Josh loaned to me. It's call The Reduced Shakespeare Company: The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged). I knew nothing about this but Josh knew I loved Shakespeare and Rupert had seen this already and really enjoyed it.. and I have to say I LOVED it. funny, funny stuff. All three actors were fantastic and I love that it was a filmed stage show. They included the entire audience and even pulled some of them on stage.. lots of fun.

Now 11pm it was time for Rupert to head home (he lives about an hour and a half way) but we had such a great time that he planned to do this again next week.

I didn't work out but it might be nice to give my muscles a break. anyways, had a really great day.

A Healthier Me - Day 3

2012-01-25T21:52:00.000-08:00

Day 3 or my new working out and eating regime. Working out is going great, sore as can be but feeling good. It takes a little pushing and motivation to get me out to the garage but once I'm out there it's smooth sailing. Now eating on the other hand... I know it would be tough for me. I've always eaten really poorly and it's not going to change over night. I had a small bowl of honey nut cheerios for breakfast, then while I was out getting the oil changed on my truck I stopped by El Pollo Loco and got me a chicken bowl (which has chicken, rice and beans). Before you write nasty comments I'm allowing myself to eat out once a week. Which is huge since I would eat out everyday for lunch. I hope within time I'll knock it down to once a month.. but baby steps to begin with. For dinner I made me a tuna sandwich (with way to little miracle whip) and some baked chips. Surprising I didn't do any snacks. I also had one diet coke.. which is great since I normally drink 3 cans of diet coke a day.

While I was out I picked up some plain low sodium rice cakes from Ralphs that I really enjoyed. I grabbed six bags since I figure I have eat one or two of these a day to take care of the snacking issue.

I posted a picture of me with my rice cakes on facebook and I got a large amount of comments about diets, what not to do, what to do.. the biggest was eating more veggies. Of course I wrote back that I'm not a big veggie eater and that veggies will be my biggest hurdle. Well I got comments like "You should start doing veggies" and "You should learn to like your veggies".. it's like I've hated them for over 40 years but now I'm suppose to instantly start liking them.. I don't think so. I will work on eating more veggies but I know myself better then anyone and it will be a uphill battle

Today's Workout:

30 minutes of cardio on the elliptical

3 sets of 10 for shoulders (45 lbs)
3 sets of 10 on the front leg press (45 lbs)
3 sets of 10 on the chest fly for my chest (75 lbs)
3 sets of 10 on the curl arm for my biceps (45 lbs)

Like I said workout went great.. easily did 30 minutes of cardio and took it easy on my weights since I'm still sore from the previous two days of workout... but I did manage to get some in.

All in all I'm happy with how things are going. As I tweeted earlier today.. "This new eating lifestyle is tough.. I've been doing it for 3 days and I've been hungry for 3 days." I know in time my stomach will shrink and I won't feel as hungry all the time.. but until then.. I'm soooo hungry!!!!

A Healthier Me - Day 2

2012-01-24T22:01:00.000-08:00

Today started off pretty good. I got up, had some eggs and potatoes (said like Samwise). Then jumped on my computer and started to work on the next MASH 4077 Podcast. Took a break around 1pm and grabbed two plain rice cakes for lunch and watched some TV for a few hours. Finished editing my new MASH 4077 Podcast around 7pm. Made myself a burger and baked fries for dinner. Then around 9pm I headed out to the garage for my workout. I had planned to take it easy as I'm just getting started but I felt great and doubled my cardio workout.

Today's Workout:

30 minutes of cardio on the elliptical

3 sets of 10 for shoulders (45 lbs)
3 sets of 10 on the front leg press (45 lbs)
3 sets of 10 crunches (110 lbs)
3 sets of 10 on the free weight (110 lbs)

My arms are sore but I still manage to get a few weights in and like I said earlier I felt great on the elliptical and keep going pass my planned 15 minutes.

All in all a good day.. ate fairly well, got in a good workout and edited and finished a complete podcast. I know it's only my second day but so far so good.

Podcast Promo Exchange

2012-01-24T19:45:00.000-08:00

Hey Guys.. I currently have four podcasts up and running. Knights of the Guild about to hit our 3 year anniversary on Feb 15th, MASH 4077 Podcast about to hit our 1 year anniversary on Feb 1st, Confessions of a Fanboy about five months old and my newest one Alien Nation: The Newcomers Podcast which is almost 1 month old.

It's a lot of work but I love podcasting; creating, producing, editing and even hosting. Having four podcast requires alot of promoting. Twitter, Facebook and just getting the word out there that my podcasts exist is a full time job. I share promos with fellow friend podcasters but I know there are a ton of people out there who do video podcasts, or video blogs. Other's who do audio podcasts and even written blogs. I really want to start cross promoting with you guys. I'd love to help promote your stuff (of course it needs to appropriate) if you are willing to promote my stuff. All I just require is a :30 to :60 second audio promo and I'd be happy to play it on all four of my podcasts at times. I currently have over 10,000 combined downloads a month. In turn I have audio promos for each of my podcasts as well as banners with my podcasts info that you can play or display on our website. Or if you do video podcasts either mentioning my podcast(s)/websites on air or a credit or banner page at the end of your video cast.

If you want to exchange promos drop me an email (it's my online screen name @ gmail.com), if you don't know what that is then just leave me a message here.

A Healthier Me - Day 1 (Starting Over)

2012-01-23T21:39:00.000-08:00

Well today started out with power going out for about four hours. It finally came back on and stayed on around 10:30am. Today is the beginning of my new outlook on life (see previous blog). Had some oatmeal for breakfast and made some chicken breasts and rice for lunch and I had planned to work out earlier in the day. Well it was harder then I expected motivating myself to actually do anything. I wanted to work on my next MASH 4077 Podcast as well as my Alien Nation podcast but really struggled with getting started. I kept pushing off my working out and podcasting and instead caught up on some TV that I had recorded. I also broke down and had 3 Oreo cookies for a snack. For dinner I kept it very light as I wasn't that hungry and made a PB&J sandwich. I'm keeping a food journal as well and debated on posting on my blog because I know I would be embarrassed if you guys actually saw what I was eating everyday. Still might do it but for now I'll keep it to myself and see if it helps me eat better... if not I will be posting for all to see and hope that will keep m in line.

I did do my workout around 9pm and it was actually a really good one, especially since I haven't worked out in over a year.

Since it's Monday I weight myself this morning 209

Today's Workout:

15 minutes of cardio on the elliptical

3 sets of 10 on the chest fly for my chest (75 lbs)
3 sets of 10 on the curl arm for my biceps (45 lbs)
3 sets of 10 for shoulders (45 lbs)
3 sets of 10 on the front leg press (45 lbs)
3 sets of 10 on the back leg press (45 lbs)
3 sets of 10 on the free weight (110 lbs)

Working out is going to be easy for me. I love doing it as I love seeing the results. My only issue is if I get sick I can't let that derail me from my program. Food on the other hand will be the hardest thing for me to change and control.. wish me luck. My plan is to get below 200 my March. That's nine pounds in 5 weeks... it's going to be tough but I need tough so I stick with my plan.

A Turning Point

2012-01-22T18:32:00.000-08:00

Well yesterday while talking to a friend of mine on Facebook about all the things that are not going the way I would like for them to be going I had a kind of panic/anxiety attack and actually had to get up from my computer and go outside for some fresh air, it was kind of scary. Today when I woke up I asked myself why did I allow myself to get that bad. Yes my life isn't going as planned and there have been a few hurdles to jump over in recent months and I still have quite a few things to work out still but mopey, sad, miserable Kenny is not fun Kenny and I'm tried of feeling that way. So starting today I decided that I will do my best to stop feeling this way. I know I can't just turn these feelings off but I can work on how I deal with them.

Starting Monday I'm going to began my workouts again. I'm determined to lose all this excess weight I've put on over the past ten years. I love working out once I get started so that shouldn't be a problem.. what I see as my major problem is changing what I eat. My entire life has been poor diets and fast foods. I don't plan to go cold turkey (meaning stop eating everything I love) I will just eat less of it and hopefully in time get it down to just once a week if that.

It's time to take control of my life again. If that means career changes or relocation then that's what will happen. I'm going on my fourth month of being unemployed and funds are extremely low, I don't want to lose my house so I have to do something about it. If that means getting a regular job or taking on a roommate then that's what I will do. I spend 5 to 6 days here at the house completely alone... again that is something I can change. I need to plan more outing with friends or maybe volunteer again. I use to do that many years ago and very much enjoyed it.

I am not happy with where my life is right now, but you know what, I am the only one that can change that.. so I'm going to do just that. I may have set backs and fall back into that "funky" mood but having a goal and motivation I don't think I will sink as much as I did the past few months. Life is a challenge and it will always be that way. Who knows what the future holds but like I said in my previous blogs you never know when you're last breath will be so live each moment to the fullest. Time to take my advice and live my life!!

Knights of the Guild Ep 38

2012-01-21T19:29:00.000-08:00

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

Today’s show features:

~ Guild News

~ Season Five Interviews with Extras; Jason, Jennifer, Josie, Dominic, Joel, Noel, James, Josh, Crystal, Jeff, Ron, Caden, Everett, Meko, Gabriel, Mariah, Holly and Jen.

Thank you again for all your support, I do this podcast because I am a fan myself and love taking other fans behind the scenes of this great webseries.

~Kenny~

Confessions of a Fanboy #6

2012-01-21T11:22:00.000-08:00

Download from Itunes: http://ow.ly/6lgMr or listen, get direct download http://ow.ly/6lgMs

Hey all you Fanboys and Fangirls, it's time for another installment of Confessions of a Fanboy.

On today's episode we have the Confession of a Fanboy, Russell Clarke. Here's a quick bio; Russ Clarke is 23, and from England. Yorkshire specifically, though he lives in rural Lincolnshire. He's a writer by trade and hopes to have his first book, tentatively titled "Book One of 'Three'" released some time in 2013. As for money, Russ is currently a freelance journalist, biographer, author, screenwriter, playwright, poet, performance poet, blogger and general all around know it all. Russ has a podcast called "I Hearth Geeks" with the lovely Maria Palafox and formerly Teal Sherer of "The Guild" fame, and is currently madly obsessed with everything. He plays SW:TOR on the Rakata Mind Prison server with his friends Kristian Nairn and Jake Stormoen and invites anyone who wants to give it a try, to come and play!

You can also follow the podcast on Twitter @FanboyPodcast, or follow the Host Kenny @Geekyfanboy. Our special guest Russ can be followed @Ruvio

Please go to our podcast page on Facebook and "Like" us.. just click HERE

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

Believing in Yourself

2012-01-20T20:00:00.000-08:00

Why is it so hard for me to believe the good things others say about me? I've always had low self esteem and I've learned to live with it. I have gotten better over the years but still I have the hardest time accepting praise, it's like I know I work hard on something and give it my all and when people acknowledge it and tell me how great it is, I have a hardest time believing it. I guess part of me doesn't want to come off being vain or arrogant, but part of me truly doesn't believe it.

It's funny, I'm a self proclaimed "Nice Guy". I have lots of tread marks on my back to prove it. But when someone tells me what a nice guy I am, I don't believe it.. why?

Why is it easier to believe the mean & negative things said about me then the good things?

Websites, Podcasts & The IT Crowd

2012-01-19T23:56:00.000-08:00

Today my friend Jen came for a visit. Jen and I worked together on The Guild season five and she quickly became one of the core members of my movie marathon weekends. She and I bonded instantly and feel very comfortable chatting to each other about any and everything.. and that's AWESOME.

She arrived around 10am to help me work on creating a new Geekyfanboy.com website. My other one was built in Dreamweaver and I had the hardest time updating and keeping every going so she suggested I use Wordpress which I have very little knowledge of so she came over to help me out. We searched for a theme for a few hours and then she started to teach me various things. We headed out to El Pollo Loco for some lunch where we had some very interesting and very personal discussions. We continued to work on the website for another few hours. I now have a general idea of how to work with Wordpress and in the next few weeks I'll be creating my new site and hopefully will launch it soon.

We could have worked on my site all day long but I wanted to record an episode of Confessions of a Fangirl with her because she's a fangirl of Punk Rock music and love that it's not your typical "geek" or "nerd" fangirl thing. So we spent the next half hour to forty-five minutes recording what I think is a very fun and interesting interview.

Jen wanted to leave around 6pm but we were having such a great day that she decided to stick around and we were going to watch some movies/tv. We decided on watching The IT Crowd. This is a British comedy about the IT department of some company. Jen LOVES this series and everyone I talk to says how great it is. So she had it on her laptop and after several failed attempts we finally were able to play the episodes from a flash drive through her xbox and watch them on my 60inch TV.

I loved this series from the very first scene. Moss has to be my favorite character but Roy is just so darn adorable. We watched all six episodes of the first season and the final episode of the season had me laughing out loud so much that I missed some dialogue. I hear this series gets better and better as it goes (there is only 4 seasons, 6 episodes each). By the time the sixth episode was finished it was 11pm and Jen still had an hour and a half drive home. We said our good nights and I jumped back on the computer to work on my new website some more.

What was suppose to be a few hours of website lessons turned into a 13 hours of fun and awesome conversation with a really good friend... Thanks Jen for making today FANTASTIC!!!!

Catching Up With A Close Friend

2012-01-18T23:38:00.000-08:00

Tonight I went out and had dinner with one of my best buds Will. Will and I use to work together on Deadliest Catch and we became really close friends. It's been a few years and our friendship went from seeing each other everyday to seeing each other once every few months and that was tough. I use to know everything that went on in his life and vis-versa but now a days I get bits of pieces of info from him when we chat and bits and pieces from facebook and that makes me sad.

So I made a pledge this year to see my "close" friends at least twice a month. To call or text them more often and to keep up on their lives. So tonight Will and I had dinner at a local restaurant near his house, we caught up on each others lives. When I meet Will he was a logger and in just two short years he is now a story producer, that's pretty incredible and I'm extremely proud of him. After dinner we went back to his place to watch a movie. We picked the new Planet of the Apes movie since neither of us had seen it. Will's roommate also joined us. It was a really good movie and I think all three of us really enjoyed it. After the movie we chatted for a bit before saying our goodbyes. We both agreed that we need to see each other more often and will make more of an effort to do so this year.

Let's hope I can keep this new pledge going not only with Will but with all my other close friends.

Movie Marathon Weekend (Day 4)

2012-01-16T19:39:00.000-08:00

So like Friday I didn't expect this to be part of my movie marathon weekend but since it's Martin Luther Kings Jr. birthday it's an official government holiday which meant Chris who works for the military got the day off. Olivia who lives up in San Fransisco area came down for the party but also for an interview with Miller corporation and Anthony just decided that he would go to work from my place.

Well I got up at 7:30am and noticed that Anthony's motorcycle was still parked in my yard. Last I heard he was suppose to be gone by 6:30am. I went out to the living room and he told me about his crazy morning. Guess his keys to his bike were in the backpack which went home with Jennifer last night so instead of waking me up and having me drive him home to get them he tried to hot wire his motorcycle which in turn caused one of the fuses to blow. And guess where the fuse box is.. under the seat which needs a key to open. So he's back at square one. He had to call a tow truck to come pick up his bike and take it to his house.

Olivia on the other hand was getting ready for her interview, she looked great. Chris and I were sitting at the dining table chatting when she came out of the guest room and informed us that she just got off the phone with Miller and was informed that they forgot it was a holiday and the folks who do the interviews were not in the office today. Olivia was pretty devastate since that was one of the reasons for coming down to the LA area.

So both Anthony and Olivia didn't have the greatest start to their Monday. Since the four of us were now just hanging out I wanted to make some breakfast, again not really expecting to be making a third breakfast I pulled out what I had left which was Bisquick and planned to make some biscuits. Of course when Chris heard this he wanted biscuits and gravy so he headed out to the local supermarket to buy some gravy. I also made some leftover sausages from the weekend. So I had my very first biscuits and gravy with sausage and have to say it was way to yummy...

We also decided to watch some more Once Upon a Time. So we watched episodes 3 & 4. During this time the tow truck arrived to take Anthony's motorcycle home. So we said our goodbyes and our party went from 4 to 3.

After the fourth episode of Once Upon a Time Chris and Olivia packed up their stuff and Chris packed up his car. I drove Olivia to the Burbank Airport and dropped her off around noon. Chris followed us in his car and parked in a local food area next to the airport. I meet up with him and we had a some lunch before he headed back up north.

I love when Chris and I can get some one on one time. We rarely spend time together just he and I but when we do it's always so awesome and very special to me. He's such an interesting person and I love getting to know him better and better. He and I are so alike yet so very different. I love this guy!!!

We ate lunch at Denny's, well he had second breakfast while I had a hamburger. We chatted for a few hours before saying goodbye at 2pm thus ending my four day movie marathon weekend extravaganza.

Thanks to all who made this four day extended weekend so special... Jennifer L, Matt, Anthony, Jennifer C. Rupert, Scott, Ashphord, Aaron, Dallas, Andrew, Kevin, Doug, America, Olivia, Greg, Red 5 and especially Chris, Jes, Jen and Will.. couldn't imagine my life without you guys being part of it.

Check out all the photos HERE

Movie Marathon Weekend (Day 3)

2012-01-15T23:38:00.000-08:00

Day three started around 7:30am, as least that is when I woke up. I didn't actually get out of bed until 8:30am. I actually texted Chris, who was sleeping on my office to see if he was awake and if he had been out to see who else was awake. He told me that everyone looked to be up, or at least awake so I got up, took a shower and headed out. Everyone looked as if they had a not-so-good sleep. I went to make breakfast. Started with potatoes as they tend to take the longest and I make a ton of them. I had 15 hungry people to feed. Will had to leave for Church and made himself a quick breakfast. I also made 2 dozen eggs, three packages of sausages and two packs of bacon. Chris knows how much I hate making bacon so he took it upon himself to get that cooked. With only a few more minutes left in cooking I noticed that my gas range flames were really low. Then it hit me that I'm running out of propane, I had checked it a few months back and it was at 20%, but with all these parties (ie showers) and having the heater on a lot I guess I went thought the gas faster then I expected and now my tank was empty. And with an empty propane tank means no hot water, no heater and no gas stove. The really sucky part is that it's a Sunday and tomorrow is a holiday so I can't even call to order more propane until Tuesday. I did finish cooking the sausages on my outside burner on my grill and luckily everything else got done before the gas went completely out. And the majority of my guests took their showers earlier so not many had to take cold showers.

Anyways we all had a great breakfast while watching our traditional breakfast movie, Galaxy Quest. After Galaxy Quest and Breakfast the 15 of us went to Vasquez Rocks for a hike. Again this is the most we've ever had at one of these hikes. Also Chris did not want to lead this one and volunteered Olivia to lead. It was a bit of a struggle at the beginning as we had "new" folks who had never been to Vasquez and weren't really hikers but then we had folks who couldn't help but climb steep rocks and take the hardest route. So we split up several times which really wasn't my plan, but I did have some of my favorite people in my group. Chris, Jes, Scott, Aaron, Rupert, Kevin, Matt and Jennifer L. We meet up with the other group toward our final leg of the hike and that was fun having the full 15 of use together hiking.

After hiking we headed back to my place for some folks to pick up their cars before we headed to Islands for our traditional lunch. Again because we were such a big party we had to split into two. Lunch was a lot of fun and then three from our party had to take off. We said goodbye to Scott, Matt and Jennifer L.

The rest of use headed back to my place for some xbox Fruit Ninja. Our numbers went from 15 to 12 remaining party goers. By this time it was already 5pm and we had a drawing for Back to the Future gifts that Dallas had brought. So I wrote every one's name down on a piece of paper and put them in my Jayne hat and we drew a name one at a time and that winner would be able to pick from the prizes until they were all claimed. Funny enough Jes pulled my name out first and I grabbed the Delorean from the 3rd movie. After the drawing Jes needed to get started on her six hour trek home. We were now down to 11 folks. We played Fruit Ninja for about an hour before Kevin, Doug and Aaron had to get going. Our party went from 11 to 8.

So the incident that happened last night between two of my guests flared up again and before we knew it they were arguing just behind us as we played Fruit Ninja trying to drown our their voices. Finally after a half hour I couldn't take it anymore and ask them if they were going to continue to argue to please have the courtesy to go into one of my bedrooms, which they did for another half hour. At this point I was not in a good mood. This isn't how I wanted to end such a great and fun weekend. Luckily one of them came to me and apologized, which was very sincere so it lessened my bad mood.

Soon Dallas, Ashphord and Jennifer C. headed home, leaving just five of us. Me, Chris, Rupert, Olivia and Anthony. We all rearranged my living spaces and got everything back into place. 3 of the 5 remaining folks are big Once Upon a Time fans and since it was Sunday and a new episode just recorded on my DVR we all sat in the TV room and watched it. After the fantastic new episode we went back and watched the first two episodes of the series, since several had not seen them and I have all the episode still on my DVR. I also made some mini tacos and taquitos for a quick dinner. It was a fun way to end the evening. Rupert left but Anthony, Chris and Olivia stayed the night.. meaning this party was going to continue into Monday.

Check out all the photos HERE

MASH 4077 Podcast Episode 24

2012-01-15T07:53:00.000-08:00

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 1, Episode #24 - Showtime

Directed by Jackie Cooper
Written by Larry Gelbart
Production code J324
Original air date March 25, 1973

Set during the Korean War in the 1950’s

Plot Summary: A USO stand-up comic performs at the 4077th, and the performance is juxtaposed with clips containing the following: Henry’s wife back home gives birth to a son and the camp’s dentist receives his discharge papers and takes great pains to make sure he does not get injured before he sets off for home. Major Burns actually gets the upper hand over Hawkeye with three practical jokes. The first is when he sabotages the still, causing it to spray Hawkeye in the face with gin. The second involves the classic 'bucket-over-the-door' gag. The third and arguably craftier joke has Hawkeye attempting to use the shower, but is annoyed to learn that Frank has switched the showerheads to spray alternately whenever Pierce tries to use it.

Hope you enjoy it,
Kenny, Meds & Al

Movie Marathon Weekend (Day 2)

2012-01-14T23:59:00.000-08:00

Today started around 8am. Everyone was up and moving around so I started to make breakfast. Since this was an unplanned breakfast (I only bought breakfast for Sunday morning) I opted for pancakes, which everyone seemed to enjoy. Lydia, Olivia, Jes, Chris, Anthony, Rupert, Jennifer C.and Aaron arrived last night. So after breakfast I cleaned up the kitchen while the others went outside to play some extreme bocce ball. About fifteen minutes later I joined in on the fun. After bocce ball we headed inside and Chris put on Doctor Horrible's Sing Along Blog and we all did just that.. we sang along to the songs.. it was so much fun. Then Chris put on The Guild season 1 and let it play in the background as we prepped snacks and lunch for the other guests who should be arriving around noon. Lydia had to head back down to the airport to fly back home, so we said our goodbyes and she left around 1pm. Jen showed up and realized that she forgot the kinect for her xbox 360. I have been wanting to buy a 360 and kinect for a while but at this time can't afford it but I told Jen if she wanted to go get a kinect from target that I would buy it and then get my xbox 360 at a later date. So she, Chris and Olivia headed out to the store to get the kinect and some last minute supplies. When they got back they had an adventure to tell of driving behind a Delorean and following this car to Vasquez Rocks where they approached the guy about his car and the guy was gracious enough to let them sit inside and take pictures. While those guys were out my friend America arrived. I haven't seen her in such a long time, so it was really good seeing her again.

I was surprised by the lack of guests since the party started at noon and we had originally wanted to start the movies at 1pm. But then I remembered that most folks who came early/on time actually came the night before and were here already.

Well it's now 3 pm and we started to make the food (BBQ Bison Burgers). Had some more issues with the grill ( I think it's time to get a new one) Andrew, Kevin, Doug, Greg and Red Five arrived just in time to grab some food as we began Back to the Future part one. During the first movie Jennifer and Matt arrived as well as my good friend Will. Scott showed up halfway though the movie as well and finally Dallas and Ashphord were the last to arrive.

For a short amount of time we had a party of 21; me, Chris, Will, Jes, Jen, Jennifer C. Anthony, Kevin, Doug, Andrew, Jennifer L., Matt, Rupert, Scott, Ashphord, Aaron, Dallas, America, Olivia, Greg and Red 5. Once the first movie was over America had to be somewhere so we said our goodbyes. Next we started Back to the Future part two. After part two Andrew had to get going so we were down to 19 people. In between parts 2 and 3 everyone got up and mingled for a bit, started to drink, snack. My initial plan was do to only the first two parts and then do part three tomorrow. But it felt like everyone wanted to finish the trilogy today so we pressed on with Back to the Future part three (which is my favorite part). After part three it was around 11pm and Greg and Red 5 left the party. So glad I got to see these guys and very happy they stuck around for all three films.

So our party was down to 17 and 16 of these people were going to be spending the night. This would be the most people I have ever had sleep over during one of these weekends.

We drank.. and drank.. and drank.. I was feeling really, really good. We played some card games. Star Fluxx and Asshole. We had such a large group that we had two games going at the same time. I won Star Fluxx even though I was drunk but the Asshole group sounded to be having a much better time as they were hooting and hollering and being crazy.

After the card games we drank more and more and Anthony and I challenged each other to a "crab" fight. It was pretty EPIC, not sure if anyone got pics or video.

It was around 2am when the night turned into a boys vs girls thing. Being the only gay man I was allowed into the girls room (which was my guest room), and interacted with them for a bit before heading back out with the boys (and Jen). It was kind of like a grade school thing.. boys trying to get into to the girls room, there was wrestling, people getting pushed into doors, it was pretty chaotic. At the same time Chris noticed that "someone" tweeted from his laptop and he was not too happy about that so he tweeted that he couldn't trust some of the folks hear at the party and some of the girls took it as if he accused them of doing it, so tempers flared and a few words were said but it fizzled out fairly quickly. Some what related to this was a fight between Anthony and Jennifer. I don't know the details all I know is Anthony is upset and sat on top of my washing machine in my dark laundry room for an hour or so.

Jen headed home and would be the last person leaving for the night.. We ended the night with sex talk, debating which is more attractive, penis' or vagina's... good times.

Around 3:00am we called it a night and it took another half hour to find a place for everyone to sleep and make sure everyone had a pillow and at least a sheet. Several folks opted to not sleep and hang out on the front porch.. I was not one of them I went to bed around 3:30am.

Check out all the photos HERE

Movie Marathon Weekend Begins Early (Day 1)

2012-01-13T22:39:00.000-08:00

Today was suppose to be a movie marathon prep day. Clean the house, go shopping and get ready for folks to start arriving tomorrow. But things kind of got started early. My friend Lydia from Switzerland asked months ago if she could stay in my guest room tonight as she was heading home tomorrow. Then another friend Olivia was flying down from San Fransisco area and was arriving tonight at 6pm. Also my friend Jes was going to come down tonight after work (she has a six hour drive). So I opened it up to who ever wanted to come early could and we could get the party started sooner then later.

I had seven people take me up on that offer, Lydia, Olivia, Jes, Chris, Anthony, Rupert, Jennifer C.and Aaron. Jes arrived first as she wanted to prep her bison burgers for tomorrow. About a half hour later I had to go pick up Olivia from the Burbank airport. It was great seeing her as I haven't seen her since we were on set of The Guild Season Five last summer. When I got home my friend Lydia was here at my place. Then Rupert and finally my best bud Chris arrived. We were still waiting on Aaron, Anthony and Jennifer. But it also was getting late and we were hungry so we decided to head to Chills and have the other guys meet us there. So I texted those guys and found out Aaron was about two miles away so we had him stop and wait on the side of the road until we could get to him.

The seven of us arrived at Chills, still no sign of Anthony and Jennifer, who were coming together. We had a great dinner. Good food and Great friends is always a good combination. Aaron surprised everyone by picking up the check.. Thanks Aaron. And just when we were about to leave Anthony and Jennifer showed up.

Outside Chills there is stadium seating area for outside concerts and I thought it would be fun to grab a pic of the gang posing out there. I took three and this was the best one.

After dinner we headed home and played some Apples to Apples while Anthony and Jennifer prepped for some of their "special" desserts. And by special I don't mean drug laced.. more like Rum and Caffeine laced.

It was a great night and a fantastic way to start the next Movie Marathon Weekend..

Check out all the photos HERE

Dinner with a Good Friend

2012-01-12T23:52:00.000-08:00

Today I drove out to Hollywood to see an very dear friend of mine... Chris Quilty. We meet while working on The Dating Game back in 96' and we became instant buddies. I was honored when he asked me to be one of his groomsmen in his wedding. He and I have a strange relationship. I consider him one of my closest friends yet we see each other maybe once or twice a year. But when we do hang out it's as if no time has passed at all. I was happy to be seeing him because we didn't get together at all in 2011 and I missed him so much. We've been trying to plan to hang out for months and today is finally the day. His wife and oldest daughter went on vacation leaving him at home with his youngest daughter. So we planned to order some pizza and watch one of my screeners.

Got to his place around 6:30pm. I got to meet his baby girl who is now 2 years old and this is the first time I'm seeing her in person. Still have never meet his oldest daughter who is I believe 3 to 4 years old. We chatted for about an hour or so, catching up on each others lives. He put his daughter down, which was very cute since he had a baby monitor on and I got to listen when he sang his daughter a lullaby.

We ordered a pizza from Papa John's and watched Moneyball. Had a great time, we both really enjoyed Moneyball, I'm not a baseball fan but it's not really a story about baseball.. it's more of a character story, which I loved. It was great just chilling like old times with my buddy. I left around 10:30pm as he had to be at work early the next day and I had an hour + drive home.

It was a great night and it just reminded me why I love this guy so much. I hope in 2012 we get to see each other more often. I don't know why we don't, life just seems to get in the way but I know I'm going to make a bigger effort to see him more often.

Crazy Day & Podcasting

2012-01-11T21:50:00.000-08:00

Well today started with an email from a gay rehabilitation clinic who said that a "friend" informed them that I could use their services. Now I know for a fact that no friend of mine would every give my name to a place like that. So I figured it was either someone who doesn't like me (yes believe it or not I have some podcast listeners who don't really appreciate my love for The Guild) or it is spam. It's no secret that I am gay and if some bot go a hold of that info they could have sent that email to me. Either way I just laughed and it really didn't me.. well other then the fact that there really are places like this who think they can "convert" a gay person and make them straight.

Well a few hours later I got another email and it was from someone who said that again a "friend" put a hit out on me and wants me dead. This "friend" paid them $15,000 to kill me and for some reason they wanted to offer me a chance to pay them and they would not kill me. You can see the email HERE

Now I know this is a scam.. they didn't use any real information about me. The grammar and spelling is horrible. And again now "friend" of mine would spend $15,000 to have me killed. Of course folks kept telling me to contact the police or FBI but honestly it's just a scam. I read about it on scoops which is a website that exposes these scams. If the email had any of my person info like my name or address or anything like that I would have gone to the police but it was very vague so I decided to just let it go.

Besides the crazy emails/spam I did get some 'real' work done. I've been wanting to clean out my office closet for a year and I finally did it.. well I pulled everything out and it's sitting on the floor of my office.. but that's a start as there is no way I will let this stuff just sit there for long.

I also remembered that I have a MASH 4077 Podcast due on the 15th, which is Sunday and I'm having a movie marathon weekend so I knew I wouldn't have time to get that edited so I spent the majority of the day editing the next MASH 4077 Podcast, which I'm happy to say I got done.

So the day started kind of crazy but ended on a good note!!

Alien Nation: The Newcomers Podcast Episode 1

2012-01-10T10:09:00.000-08:00

Download from itunes http://bit.ly/itunesAlienNation or Listen/Direct Download http://Aliennationpodcast.com

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 1 - Pilot

Directed by Kenneth Johnson
Written by Kenneth Johnson
Original air date September 18, 1989

Plot Summary: George and Matt are partnered together and are assigned to investigate their first case together; a vagrant has died and has strange sores on his body. Matt receives a large box of information on the newcomers and slavery from his deceased partner, Tuggles. This information gets Matt and George looking in some strange places and re-evaluating Tuggles death. George and his family move into their new home and face the challenges of moving into an upscale neighborhood. Matt meets his new neighbor and they begin a difficult friendship.

Hope you enjoy it,
Kenny & Michael

© Geekyfanboy Productions

MASH 4077 Podcast

2012-01-08T23:49:00.000-08:00

Today was MASH Podcast day all day long. First up was recording the next six episodes of the podcast (Feb - April). We were suppose to do these a few weeks back but I wasn't feeling or sounding so good. It normally takes us about 3 hours to record 6 episodes.. today it took us about 2 hour 15 minutes. So that was really good.

I got off to a bad start though. After recording the first episode I realized that I had my external speakers playing the audio as well, which is a huge mistake. Now there is double audio or like a feedback for this episode. We don't have to re-record the podcast but it does take extra effort in post/editing.

Besides the six episode we recorded we did our Harry Morgan tribute. So I spent the rest of the day editing that and finding audio clips of some of his work on MASH. I noticed that my audio sounded echoie or like I was in a large room. Normally I have crystal clear audio. I investigated a bit and realized that the wrong mic was plugged in and I was actually talking into a dead mic, lucky for me the second mic (the one plugged in) is only a foot away and picked up my audio but it's not crisp and sounds like I'm far away.

So not the best recording experience I've ever had. Nothing horrible but me being a perfectionist the audio quality is extremely important and now I have to edit our next six podcasts hearing this issue, which will drive me crazy. :(

I did manage to finally get our SwampCast #4 edited and uploaded by the end of the night.

MASH 4077 SwampCast #4 - Harry Morgan Tribute

Download from itunes http://tinyurl.com/MASH4077itunes or listen/direct download http://MASH4077Podcast.com

Here is another SwampCast... #4, a SwampCast is a non-regular show.. meaning we will not be reviewing an episode during this podcast. These SwampCasts will come out now and then and cover "cast" interview, or listener feedback or anything else that we want to share with the listeners that doesn't fit into our regular show review episodes.

Our fourth SwampCast is dedicated to one of the greatest actors of our time, he also entertained us for 8 seasons as the lovable Sherman T. Potter.

This is MASH 4077 Podcast tribute to the late Harry Morgan.

Dinner with Friends

2012-01-07T22:48:00.000-08:00

I didn't go to bed until 6am today (read my previous blog to find out why) so I got up around 11:30am. I finished creating the show notes for the first episode of my new podcast Alien Nation: The Newcomers Podcast. The big thing happening today was dinner with my friends John and Moises. Every year John has a dinner party on or close to the 12th Day of Christmas. This year joining John and Moises was Tom and Ervin, Bruce, and Martin. It was great seeing everyone as we use to hang out during TV nights as my place a few years back (when I lived closer) but now a days I'm lucky if I see these guys a few times a year. I hope to change that, as tonight really reminded me how much I care about these guys and enjoy their company. Moises made a wonderful dinner, we watched John's super 8 movies from 20 years ago and just chatted. Good times were had by all.

Family

2012-01-06T23:59:00.000-08:00

Today I spent some time with my family. Dad was sick but I did get to hang out with my brother's family. Got to visit my brother Michael, his wife Lora and my nephew Kenobi and my 3 week old niece Molly. Spent about 5 hours hanging out, helping with the feeding of Molly and playing with Kenobi. I also brought Michael our completed first episode of our Alien Nation Podcast.

After visiting my family and since I was out that way I had to visit another person who I consider family, my buddy Josh. I drove to his place around 10pm and as always he was there to greet me with a smile and the worlds best hug. We hung out in his room for a bit and went over all his DVD's. I must say he has a very eclectic collection of DVD's... from Booty Call to Lord of the Rings to The Boondock Saints. He loaned me several "must" see movies that I haven't seen yet. And I made a list of movies that I need to bring to him for he hasn't seen several classics like The Breakfast Club or Sixteen Candles.

He also showed me his collection of Lord of the Rings mini figurines for a RPG game that he use to play. He hand painted every one of them and even won some awards. Very detailed paint jobs.. I was extremely impressed.

We then headed over to Denny's for a late late dinner at midnight and we sat there and talked for four in a half hours... it was AWESOME!!! We really got to know each other even better. Our friendship is new (this is only our fourth time actually hanging out and it's the first time that it's just he and I). But as I've said in previous blogs that he's a Kindred Spirit and it's as if we've know each other for a lifetime. So it was a blast just sitting there and enjoying ones company. Around 4:30am he needed to get to bed as he had to be up for work in 5 hours and I still had my hour and a half drive home. We went back to his house said our goodbyes and headed home. I did manage to get home before the sun rose. But a little lack of sleep was well worth the time spent with such a special person... can't wait to do it again.

PGA Awards & Alien Nation

2012-01-05T23:19:00.000-08:00

This morning I got to vote for the PGA Awards (Producer's Guild of America). I've been a member of the PGA for four or five years and it's always fun to get screeners of current movies but the other fun thing is to actual vote for the official awards. There are about 12 categories and I have to say this year I have seen 95% of the movies that are up. The big movie best film of the year our of the 10 nominated I chose The Help and something new this year the PGA have a webseries category so I got to vote for the one and only webseries that I have worked on The Guild.

The rest of the day was spent editing on and off my very first Alien Nation: The Newcomers Podcast. I'm excited to get this out there and see what folks think. I'm also excited because my brother is my co-host and I think our chemistry really came across on the podcast. We've recorded two episodes so far and have three more planned in the near future. My plan is to release 1 podcast on the 10th of every month. I hope fans enjoy it as much as my brother and I enjoyed recording it.

Disneyland

2012-01-04T23:59:00.000-08:00

Well my annual pass has already paid for itself and it's only been a few months. Went to Disneyland again today. This time with my friend Lydia who is visiting from Switzerland. Also joining us were my friends Adam, Jared (and his brother), Andrew, Anthony and Jennifer. And later joined by Rachel and Sharaya.

My morning started at 6:21am. Left the house around 7am to drive to Northridge to pick up Jennifer. With traffic I got to her place around 8:15am. We then headed to my friend Lydia who was staying in Hollywood. That took us a bit longer then planned. I was hoping to get to her by 9am but got there around 9:15am. I parked my jeep and Lydia drove to the rest of the way to Disneyland. Of course it's LA so we hit traffic on and off but got to Disneyland around 10:30am. The line of cars to get into the parking structure was HUGE. I just knew it was going to be a busy day. But when we actually got in to the structure we were on the first level and there weren't many cars. I guess everyone decided to arrive about the same time. We manage to get on the tram fairly quickly and meet up with Andrew, Anthony, Adam, Jared and his brother Colin.

A few of them had to get tickets but most had annual passes. Once everyone had their tickets we opted to go to DCA (Disneyland California Adventures) first. Lydia, Jennifer and myself were hungry after the 3 hours of traveling so we wanted to get some food. The others didn't so we split up. It was me, Anthony, Jennifer and Lydia and then it was Andrew, Jared, Colin and Adam. We stopped for food at he Taste Pilot Grill. After lunch we headed over to The Tower of Terror. This was Lydia's first time at DCA so we wanted to start it off right. After that we went to The Monster Inc. ride (can't remember the actual name) but it was closed so we walked over to the Muppet Vision 3D. I had never done this before so it was new for all of us. It was a fun experience and when we got out we noticed that the Monster Inc ride was open so we headed over there. Just then a friend of Anthony's joined us Rachel. so the five of us rode they ride and then Lydia wanted to go to Screaming (the roller coaster). So we walked over there to find out that it's completely shut down and guys were working on the tracks. So instead we went over to the big Ferris wheel (can't remember the name of it) we stood in line for the moving cars and about 45 minutes later we were swinging back and fourth.

After the Ferris Wheel we got in line for Goofy's Sky School even though it was an hour wait. Well about five minutes into our wait the ride broke down and we all looked at each other and said, let's get something to drink so we did that and relaxed for a bit and talked Who (love my geeky friends).

After our rest we decided to head over to Disneyland. Our first ride was Indiana Jones. Now my friend Anthony was in a recent car accident (well he was actually hit by a car while on his motorcycle), I blogged about picking him up for the hospital a few months back. He now walks with a cane so he was able to get us into the handicap lines which meant we didn't have to wait in the hour + lines and only had to wait five to ten minutes. Not all rides had this "special" line but the big rides did and it was nice not having to wait. So after Indy we did Big Thunder Mountain, Captain EO, then Space Mountain and then had some dinner. After dinner we did Innovations and Star Tours before taking a break and charging our phones. During Star Tour we meet up with another of Anthony's friends Sharaya. So Jennifer, Anthony, Rachel and Sharaya went over to ElecTRONica over at DCA as Lydia and I charged our phones and watched the fireworks. After the fireworks Lydia and I rode the Matterhorn. The other guys came back over and went to get Gumbo so after we got off the Matterhorn we headed over there as well. After Gumbo we did The Haunted Mansion and for our final ride we did Indiana Jones for a second time.

It was a packed day. My goal was to make sure Lydia has a great time and from what I could tell she did. We never did re-connect with the other group, which was a bummer as I hadn't seen some of those guys in months... but I got to meet two new friends Rachel and Sharaya and I got to hang out with Anthony, Jennifer and of course Lydia.

Lydia drove back to her place, Jen and I got in my jeep and I drove her home to her place before finally getting home around 2am. I watched an episode of The Simpsons and then went to bed.

Editing Alien Nation Podcast

2012-01-03T23:00:00.000-08:00

I spent the day editing my Alien Nation podcast off and on. Michael and I recorded a few episodes last week and I really wanted to get the first episode out. I did manage to get the entire podcast edited and it sounds great but I ran into trouble when I tried to get episodes of the actual show imported into my computer. Several friends suggested several "ripping" programs but none of them seemed to work. Between frustrating attempts I would clean the kitchen, do dishes and tidy up from the non-party party this past weekend.

I finally got my spare tire fixed on my Jeep. The past few weeks I've been driving around with no spare and it's not the best feeling. So I found a PepBoys and they fixed my spare (had a nail in it). And now I have a spare again which makes me happy as I haven't had the best of luck with tires.

My attempts to covert the video and import to my Avid has failed. My Alien Nation podcast will have to be put on hold until I can figure out how to get the audio imported. I still hope to have the first episode out by the 10th.

The Holidays Are Over

2012-01-02T23:31:00.000-08:00

Once again I'm always sad when one of my weekend movie marathon / Weekend party / Non-Party Party ends. Jes just left my house to head back home and I'm in this big house alone again. But with that said I'm already gearing up for my Back to the Future Movie marathon in a few weeks. So the house will be filled with all my friends soon enough.

I put up my Christmas decorations the day after Thanksgiving and I take them down the day after New Years. So today I slowly took down all my decorations. I love the Christmas season but it is nice to have my house back in order. Only thing still standing is my tree which I'll deal with tomorrow.

I tried to do some editing of some podcasts but that didn't happen.. instead, as I always do after a "party weekend" I just chill and watch TV. I did watch the Rose Parade and thought this years they had a lot more "geeky" floats which was awesome.. I guess it's partly because of the theme of the parade this year... Just Believe...

Anyways.. still have to do dishes and work on getting out my next Knights of the Guild podcast, which is now overdue. I also want to edit my very first Alien Nation podcast and get that released asap.. Guess I'll tackle those tomorrow.

2011 My Year in Review

2012-01-01T23:38:00.000-08:00

2011 had some of my highest highs and some of my lowest lows. It's been a year of lose, stress and uncertainty, mixed with new friendships, support and a rebirth. The year started on a sour note and kind of went down hill from there with a few peaks every now and then. Beginning of this year I was sick (lasted 3 months) which prevented me from working out. Up to this point I had lost 20 lbs but being sick and not working out meant I would gain it all back. My relationship with Harry was on a down turn and I knew I had to do something so we talked about it and we broke up. He wasn't going to leave for a few months so we had to deal with the next stage of our relationship, which turned out to be pretty good. This was also the year that I worked for MTV and I would have to say though it was extremely stressful at times (expected with my line of work) for the most part it was a good job. Up until the end when things got there worse and I wanted to quit (and in fact did quit for a few hours).

I had a mini nervous breakdown mid way through the year. But I guess that should be expected since I had broken up with Harry (after 8 years), Daisy went to live with Harry, worked at a job that was stressing me out, and I just found out that my Dad had gotten cancer again for the second time. And then when Harry actually left in August I felt really lost and alone. I been telling folks that I'm going through a mid-life crisis a bit early. I'm 41, single, jobless and not really sure where my life is going next.

There were points in this year where I didn't think I could continue going forward. Between work, Dad's cancers, Harry leaving, The Guild, multiple podcasts and my own health issues things weren't looking to good.

It hasn't been all doom and gloom this year. We had snow up at my house that lasted five days (rarely snows up here) so that was fun. Started two new podcasts MASH 4077 Podcast with my buddies Meds and Al. And Confessions of a Fanboy which I host solo. Also my Knights of the Guild podcast celebrated it's 2nd year anniversary. I've been wanting to learn sign language for many years and I finally started to teach myself. I have the alphabet down and I'm slowly learning entire words. It will take time but I hope to one day be able to have a conversation completely in sign language. I'm a huge J.R.R Tolkien fan and I finally found the Silmarillions on audio book and listened to them on my long commutes into MTV. There is so much rich history to middle earth and I completely feel in love with these stories.

I attended San Diego Comic Con as I have done the past eight years but this year I dressed up for two days. I've been wanting to do cos-play for years now but never took the time to actually make my outfit. This year I was determined to get my costume made and with the help of my friend Greg Aronowitz I had a fantastic Hobbit outfit. I had such a great time taking pictures with folks and chatting about LOTR. I plan to dress up for other cons as well in the future. On my last day of SDCC my jeep was broken into and thousands of dollars of equipment was taken, but there is a silver lining. When friends and podcast listeners heard about the thief they banded together and raised over $3000 for replacement equipment.

Went to the Western cup Quidditch match (yes Quidditch is real) and had the best time. Then a few weeks later I actually joined a local Quidditch team (Hollywood Harpies). I played in about six games before I realized that I need to be in better shape before I can continue to play so I'm currently on hold with Quidditch. Speaking of Harry Potter I finally took my trip to Florida to go to Universal's Wizarding World of Harry Potter. I spent 3 days at the park and was in heaven. It's just what I needed after a horrible job. I loved immersing myself into this magical world. They also started an online community called Pottermore which I was lucky enough to get into the beta program.

I got to see Star Wars in concert with my buddy Sean. I missed this when it came around to LA a few years ago so I was extremely excited to see that it was coming back for it's final run. Speaking of Star Wars I got a Disneyland premium annual pass and got to ride the new Star Tours and loved it. Then my buddy Andrew said we should go and just ride Star Tours all day long.. so we did. We were there from 2pm to 11pm and road Star Tours 10 times. We were able to see all the different versions and Andrew was actually picked once to be the rebel spy... it was a fantastic experience.

Got to meet The Kessels (Al and Joyce). It was great to see the bond we had over the internet was instantly there in person. They are a fantastic couple and I love them dearly. I also got to meet my buddy Bryan Hyland who turned out to be even more special and cool in person.

I got to be on set for The Guild season five, I've been with The Guild for four out of the five seasons now. During season five it was set at a comic book convention which meant they needed lots of extras. Some of those extras became some of my best friends. And to keep the fun going after shooting I started having Movie Marathon Weekends. Where 10 to 15 people would come over to my place for a weekend to watch movies, play games, drink and have an awesome time. First up was Indiana Jones then we did Star Wars, then Lord of the Rings. I also had a Weekend Christmas party. These events are so EPIC and are truly some of the best times I've had in my 40+ years of life.

I became an uncle for a second time. Little Miss Molly was born in December and completed my brothers family. She's adorable and I can't wait to see her and her big brother Kenobi grow up and become big geeks like their daddy and uncle.

I will remember 2011 as the year of friendships.. I've made some new life long friends in Jes, Kim, Jen, Anne, Nicki, Anthony, Rupert, Gabriel, Adam L, Ashphord and Lesley. While strengthening the bond with older friendships like Andrew, Scott, Aaron, Leo, Luis, Lydia and Thomas. I also have so many wonderful online friends, like Russ, Markus, Bryan H, Charles, Steve, Ken. Matt B and got to see/meet some of them at this years SDCC, like Dani, Adam (Bel), Jeff V, Becky, Erlend, Liz, Michael D, Joshua, Eva, Jeff C, & Bryan V. I've also lost focus with some of my older friendships. These friends are so dear to me that it's hurt that we weren't able to see each other very much in 2011. I hope that will change for 2012.

CHRIS

JOSH

And lastly there are two "new" friends who really made this year extra special for me... Chris and Josh. Both had that rare thing happen when you meet someone, you feel as if you have known them your entire life. I like to call them "Kindred Spirits". Being friends with them takes no effort, it's as if we have always been friends. It rarely happens and I was lucky enough to have it happen twice to me this year. I love both of these guys like brothers and they will forever be part of my life.

The end of 2011 has started an upswing in life and I hope to continue this into 2012. I'm still single and looking for a job.. but this year I'm focusing on me, finding my place in this big world. Going to travel more, spend more time with family and friends. Life is short, you never know when it might be our last day so live each day to it's fullest... that's my new 2012 Motto :)

Happy 2012

2012-01-01T23:23:00.000-08:00

My New Years Eve Non-Party party continues, got up and made pancakes and bacon for breakfast. Lydia left last night but still here at my place are Jes, Jen, Aaron and Rupert. After breakfast Aaron had to head home leaving Jes, Jen and Rupert. We played a few rounds of Waterworks (our new favorite card game). We headed out to Buffalo Wild Wings, which I had never heard of but Jen and Jes kept raving about. We found out there is on in Palmdale about 15 minutes north of me so we headed over there. It was packed.. of course we forgot it was Sunday and football was happening and it seems this was the place to be. We waited about 30 minutes for a table, but I have to say the wait was worth it. Had some very yummy buffalo wings (3 kinds), popcorn shrimp and seasoned fries. All very delicious and yummy.

After lunch we headed over to Target so I could buy Apples to Apples the family size... because Aaron had to leave he took his Apples to Apples of course and we wanted to play. So I bought me own. When we got home from Target we wanted to play a joke on our buddy Chris who couldn't make it to our non-party party. Chris loves playing extreme bocce ball when he comes over to my place so we posed (didn't actual play) for pictures with some bocce balls and pretended to play... just so I could text him the photos :)

We played Apples to Apples for hours and after we took all the adjectives card that we won and pulled out six of them that we felt best described ourselves. Mine was Magical, Cuddly, Chunky, Spunky, Fuzzy and Weird. Jes got Friendly, Responsible, Calm, Hilarious, Mischievous, and Dirty. Jen got Busy, Unnatural, Luscious, Charismatic, Fresh and Chewy. And Rupert got Creative, Eccentric, Easy, Visionary, Charming, & Masculine

Next Jen brought her XBox 360 with Kinect and we played Fruit Ninja.. OMG.. I thought it was fun playing on my phone and ipad.. that's nothing compared to playing it on my 60inch TV and actually slicing the fruit in half.. man that's a good work out. We played singles, teams and various versions.. it was a blast. After that we changed to a game called Carnival Game Monkey See Monkey Do. This had a ton of fun games and we played that until around 11pm. I killed my shoulder but man it was fun playing. Both Jen and Rupert didn't plan to stay all day but as my parties, even my non-parties, go we were having to much fun to stop. Jes was staying the night as she was heading back up north (7 hour drive) Monday morning.

Had a blast playing games, both card and Xbox, all day long. If this is any indication of how 2012 is going to be.. then it's going to be an AWESOME year.

Thanks again to Jes, Jen and Rupert for making the first day of 2012 FANTASTIC!!

MASH 4077 Podcast Episode 23

2012-01-01T10:32:00.000-08:00

Download from itunes tinyurl.com/MASH4077itunes or Listen/Direct Download 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 1, Episode #23 - Ceasefire
Directed by Earl Bellamy
Written by Larry Gelbart & Robert Klane
Production code J323
Original air date March 18, 1973

Set during the Korean War in the 1950’s

Plot Summary: News of a ceasefire has reached the 4077th. Everyone celebrates and says their good-byes, except Trapper, who remains skeptical. The ceasefire does, of course, turn out to be a rumour, but not before Hawkeye tells three of his lovers he is married, shows the camp pictures taken of General Clayton and Major Houlihan, and forgives $1,500 worth of gambling debts.

Hope you enjoy it,
Kenny, Meds & Al

Happy New Years Eve!!!

2011-12-31T23:59:00.000-08:00

I'm not a big party person and don't enjoy going out for New Years Eve. So I put out a tweet and facebook call for friends who wanted to join me for a nice quiet, but fun New Years Eve non-party party. Several friends took me up on this offer. As I mentioned in my previous blog, Jes, Jen and Aaron arrived last night. We got up around 8am and I made breakfast for everyone. After we ate we played a new game, well it's not new to me as it's one of my games but it was new to the group. It's called Waterworks, and we had a blast. After a few games of this we were going to play Flux and I mentioned that there were several variations on the game of Flux like, Star Flux, Zombie Flux and Pirate Flux so we opted to go to Target to see if we could find any. Unfortunately Target didn't have any Flux but Aaron did pick up a Apples to Apples travel game. So when we got back home we played many games of Apples to Apples.

In between our Apples to Apples game I made some BBQ hamburgers and hot dogs for lunch. Lydia showed up to join our non-party party and we continued to play Apples to Apples. Then a surprise guest showed up.. Rupert, who had not mentioned that he was going to join us and come to find out he was actually going somewhere else and as he was traveling there he changed his mind and made a detour for my place. So we continued to play Apples to Apples a few more times before we sat down to watch some of my screeners.

Lydia went through and selected the ones she would like to watch and I noticed she selected The Artist. I had heard a bit about this movie. I knew it was in black and white and was a throwback to silent films. I wasn't sure how this movie was going to play out. How could they do a modern silent film in 2011. Well they pulled it off. The movie was pretty great. The acting was flawless, as it needed to be because the actors needed to portray what they were doing through their facial expressions and movement. The music that accompanied it was perfect and all in all everyone really enjoyed it.

Now I must admit that I started to make dinner (spaghetti & meatballs) while this movie was going and missed things here and there but even so I really enjoyed the movie, so much so that I plan to sit down and watch it again so I can say I saw the entire thing.

After dinner and The Artist we opted to watch Bridesmaids. Now three of us had seen it but three had not and the three that did see it was up for seeing it again for sure. Bridesmaids ended at 11:45pm and we all moved to the kitchen to get our glasses of campaign/apple cider and went back into the TV room to watch the ball drop.

We all counted down as 2012 arrived!!! What a great way to bring in the new years. A day of awesome fun, sharing it was great friends.

Thanks Jes, Jen, Aaron, Lydia and Rupert for making the end of 2011 and the beginning of 2012 FANTASTIC!!!

Sleep Over

2011-12-30T22:18:00.000-08:00

Tonight several of my friends Jen, Jes and Aaron come over for my non-party New Years Eve party. Since they all have a few hours drive to get to my place, they all decided to come the night before. Everyone arrived about the same time 8:30ish. We watched the Doctor Who Christmas special and then The Best Of Doctor Who Christmas special before heading to bed and getting ready for a fun New Years Eve non party party. This weekend is going to be AWESOME!!!

Alien Nation Podcast

2011-12-30T17:35:00.000-08:00

After four months of planning my brother Michael and I finally were able to get together and record our new Alien Nation: The Newcomer Podcast. My brother has been on baby watch and as you all know my niece was born a few weeks ago so he was free to come over to my place to record. It's been a few years since I watched the entire series and it's been many, many years for my brother. We started off with watching the 2 hour pilot and then we recorded our first episode.

My brother guest host with me on my "stolen" SDCC podcast and caught the bug so when I decided that I wanted to do an Alien Nation podcast he was my first choice. And I'm happy to say he's a natural, must run in the family. We had a great time recording our first episode, as expected we had instant chemistry.

After we record our first episode we watched episode two and then proceeded to record our second episode and again we had a lot of fun. We had planned to do 3 episodes but since the first episode was two hours we only got two done. But we are only releasing one a month so I have January and February done. I hope to get this first episode edited and uploaded within in the first week of January.

Help with my LOTR Tattoo

2011-12-30T08:15:00.000-08:00

So I'm still trying to figure out what kind of Lord of the Rings tattoo I am going to get next month. I do know I want the elvish script of "One Ring to Rule Them All" but I'm not sure what style to do it in. I searched the web yesterday and found a few examples of tattoos that I like. Let me know your thoughts on these.

With the picture above I like the ring look.. but I'm thinking of putting something in the middle of the ring. Since I love Hobbits I was thinking of doing some Hobbit Feet (but that might look weird having disembodied feet in the middle of a circle, or maybe The Shire. (rolling hills with Hobbit holes in the side of the mountains). But that might not be a big enough area to get some good details since it's going on my upper right arm. I was also thinking of putting Samwise's face in the middle of the circle since he's my favorite character from LOTR but again like with The Shire I'm not sure the area is big enough to create a very detailed looking tattoo.

I was also thinking of doing the ring of elvish script and putting J.R.R. Tolkien's initials in my middle of it. (inspired by my buddy Josh's tattoo). I found a picture online of what that would look like.

Those were my ideas... but I came across a very cool picture that I'm now very interested in getting tattoo on my arm.. it's the actual ring itself with the Elvish script.

I like them all and in the end it's my choice since it's going on my body.. but I would love to hear what you guys think of my ideas.. or if you have a "hobbit" suggestion of what to put inside the circle of Elvish script. I hope to get this done mid January and I'll for sure post pictures when it happens.

Life is Strange

2011-12-29T15:30:00.000-08:00

So I've been out of work now for almost 3 months. It was a conscious choice to take at least 2 to 3 months off after all the stress I had endured on my last gig. During this time I had planned to really reassess my life, to find a new direction, a new focus. It's a process trying to understand where my life is going next.. but I think I'm slowly figuring it out.

I'm single after eight years, I'm older and I think a bit wiser about life. I'm finally happy with "who" I am as a person and a human being, could I make improvement.. of course, but it took me years be okay with the way I look, being short, the way I talk, going bald, realizing that I'm never going to be "thin" and the big one (at least for me) being a gay man. Now that I'm in my 40's I realized that half of my life is over and what do I have to show for it. Now I'm not saying that I didn't have a great first 40 years, I did. But I feel like I haven't lived my life to it's fullest. I've gotten better over the years but I still don't think I've accomplished that goal.

I've come to find out that it really takes a lot of effort to enjoy ones life. To not be depressed, worried or consistently thinking about the things you don't have and to really look at the things you do and appreciate each and everyone of them. You can't focus on work and money as a means to an end. Yes work and money help you obtain those things that you want but it's not the driving force that propels you through life. What propels you are family and friends and the memories you make together. Because without love, companionship and friendship what's the point of living on this planet.

My goal for 2012 is to live in the now, to appreciate all that I have now. Don't worry about the future because honestly today might be my last day on this Earth. A question I like to ask myself is "If I died today would I die a Happy man".. if the answer is not 100% yes then I'm not living my life properly, or at least the way I want to live it. It will take effort to stay in this frame of mind and I'm sure I'll fall back into a funk here and there but from here on out I'm going to try and live my life to it's fullest so when that day comes and I'm no longer here, I will know that I died a happy man.

Hanging with Josh

2011-12-28T23:59:00.000-08:00

I was looking forward to today as I was going to be hanging out with one of my favorite people, Josh. I mentioned in a previous blog that Josh and I became friends on twitter and facebook this year and there was just something special about him.. a Kindred Spirit. We finally got to meet face to face a few weeks ago during my Christmas party and that bond of friendship was there the moment we saw each other. It's so rare to find those kinds of people whom you just instantly bond with, as if you've known them your entire life. So I was extremely excited when he invited me over to his place today.

He lives about an hour and a half away from me so I left my house about two hours before we were to meet up as I didn't want to be late. Well I didn't take into account the "work" traffic and it took me just a bit longer then expected, but when I got there he was waiting with one of his incredible hugs. I also got to meet his girlfriend Nicole, whom I've been friends with on facebook as well and was looking forward to meeting. He took me into his house and introduced me to his parents TeriAnn & Michael, both who are extremely welcoming. His father and I chatted for a bit but as I was late already and we were trying to catch a movie I didn't get to spend much time with them.

Our first stop for the night was Red Robin where we enjoyed some yummy burgers (well Josh had a wrap) and fun conversation. I got to know a little bit more about how Josh and Nicole met.. good times.

Since I got to Josh's a bit late we were crunched for time as we had planned to see Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol at 7:15 but there was no way we were going to be able to make that so we opted for a later screening leaving our night open. After dinner we headed over to a local mall to check out some cute puppies and walk around a bit. We then went to Rite Aid to grab some ice cream (which I didn't not partake in... my whole lactose intolerant thing) and walked around Rite Aid. After Rite Aid we headed back to Josh's house to hang out but by the time we got there it was time to head to the movie theater.

Josh works at this movie theater so we got in for free and got some free soda and popcorn. We had about a half hour to kill so we sat in the theater chatting and having fun.

Now I'm not a huge fan of Mission Impossible movies.. as I've only seen the first one and probably wouldn't have seen this one if it wasn't for Josh but I'm so happy I did see this.

Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol was an action packed, extremely intense and fast paced movie. And to experience it with Josh and Nicole made it even better. I was sitting next to Josh during the movie and his reaction to what was happening on screen was priceless. We kept glancing over at each other with looks of "OMG.. did they just do that" or " Holy Cow!! That was AWESOME". It was one of my more enjoyable movie experience.

After the movie I got to meet Josh's brother Justin, who also works at the theater. We chatted with Justin for a few minutes before he had to get back to work. So we headed back to Josh's house. I had suggested going to Vegas (and I was serious) but Josh had to work the next day. So we hung out in the car in front of his house and chatted, sang, laughed and had an all around awesome time until 3am.

I said my goodbyes and got another incredible hug from Josh (this guy can hug) and headed home. I got home around 4:30am and went to bed by 5am.

It was a very memorable and fun evening and one that I will remember for a long time.

Editing my MASHcast

2011-12-27T22:38:00.000-08:00

Nothing much going on today.. wanted to work on some podcasts and actually did get some work done on my next MASH 4077 Podcast as it's due to be released at the beginning of the year. Still have to work on my next Knights of the Guild and Confessions of a Fanboy. Other than that it was a pretty lazy day.

Movies with a Friend

2011-12-26T23:59:00.000-08:00

Finally someone took me up on my offer to come over and watch some of my screeners. My friend Jen drove up from the Anaheim area to spend the day with me. We ate some yummy pizza, buffalo wings and chocolate truffles and watched Bridesmaids, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, A Dangerous Method, attempted Carnage and finally ended with The Adventures of Tin Tin.

We started with Bridesmaids which I never saw in theaters but heard how great it was. It's funny, extremely raunchy and had a nice story. It's unusual to have such a raunchy "chick" flick but man some scenes were hilarious.. Jen and I would look at each other and say.. OMG.. did they just do that... it was awesome. We kept saying.. well this must be rock bottom for the main character.. but nope she would drop further down. I was introduced to a new actor who I just adore Chris O'Dowd. I loved his character of Officer Rhodes and it doesn't hurt that he has an Irish accent. Overall a fun movie, could I watch it over and over again.. probably not but once in a while when I need to laugh.. for sure. I give this movie a solid B+

Next up was The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. Of course I heard all the buzz but I wasn't interested in seeing this movie, but I'm glad Jen choose this one. I've been watching so many sci fi/fantasy and occasional comedies that I forgot that there are some other genre films that should be checked out. This is one of them. A murder mystery isn't my cup of tea but I really enjoyed this film. There were moments when the actor on screen would look at a picture or something and then get a look on their face like.. yes.. I figured it out. And I would look over at Jen and say.. did you see something and she'd be like.. nope I didn't see anything. Maybe we weren't suppose to see it but they did that a few to many times for my taste. Over all it was a good movie and I'm happy that I saw it. I wouldn't watch it again, one time is plenty for me. I'd give it a B-

We then moved on to A Dangerous Method which I had heard nothing about. It's a look at how the intense relationship between Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud gives birth to psychoanalysis. Would not interest me at all but again I'm glad Jen requested this one as it was a solid movie. Some great acting, the best was Keira Knightley towards the beginning of the movie. Jen turned to me and said if she doesn't get an Oscar nod for this role then there is something wrong with the system. I agree, Keira's acting in the first 20 minutes of this film is incredible. Watching this movie took me back to my collage class on Psychology and all the Jung/Freud stuff I had to read. Like Dragon Tattoo, I won't ever see this again but I'm glad I saw it once. I'd give it a C+

For our final movie of the night we wanted to pick something lighthearted after two very dramatic and depressing movies. I had heard that Carnage was a comedy, but that's all I knew about it. We knew it had some big stars like Jodie Foster, Kate Winslet and John C Riley and we found out that it was co-written and directed by Roman Polanski . Well here's a quick synopsis "Two pairs of parents hold a cordial meeting after their sons are involved in a fight, though as their time together progresses, increasingly childish behavior throws the evening into chaos." And that is basically what it's about.. four people in a living talking for 80 minutes. We got through 15 minutes before Jen and I looked at each other and said.. OMG they are going to stay in that living room the entire movie... and sure enough we fast forward though the movie and they never left or cut away from the living room. It's based on a play and you can tell. It just wasn't what Jen and I wanted to end the night with so we turned it off.. I can't rate it.

So instead we put on The Adventures of Tin Tin, which I already saw but I knew it was a fun ride and a good way to end our movie marathon. I'm glad Jen enjoyed it and was just as impressed with the animation as I was.

After Tin Tin Jen planned to head home, it was now 10:45pm and she has an hour plus drive home, but instead we talked till 1am.. it was AWESOME!! Got to know a little bit more about each other. It was a fantastic day. If anyone else wants to have a movie marathon just let me know.. I'm out of work and free at the moment.

Christmas Day

2011-12-25T21:40:00.000-08:00

Woke up early on Christmas Day, I was at my brothers so I could watch my nephew Kenobi open presents. Our plan was to open his presents and then open our presents after before heading to my mom's for lunch. Well Kenobi was so obsessed ripping the wrapping paper and then putting in the trash piece by piece and playing with his new toy that it took us a few hours to get through all his gifts. And then Mike (my brother) gave him his big present, a motorized cop car and that was it. He had to go out and drive around, which he did for about 15 minutes before we had to pull him off so we could get ready to head to my Mom's. Needless to say we were not able to open our gifts and would have to do it when we got back home.

Kenobi got a new lightsaber so of course I had to put in my
hands of my 13 day old Niece Molly :)

Got to my Mom's around noon and did our typical family thing. Opened gifts, ate a yummy Christmas lunch and then visited for a few hours. My step dad Chuck took Kenobi sailing. Kenobi just loves the water.

After Mom's we headed back to my Brother/Dad's place for Christmas Dinner. We were joined by Lora's (sister-in-law) sister Wendy. It's always nice to see her. We also finally were able to open our Christmas gifts.

It was a nice Christmas, in years past my family would go overboard and buy a ton of gifts for everyone, but now that we have "little" ones we focused more on them and less on us. I still gave a few gifts to family members but nothing like I have done in the past. It was great to see Kenboi's face when he first came down the stairs and his parents proclaimed that Santa was here and to look at all the gifts. He's 2 1/2 and kind of understands Santa (or as he calls him Ho Ho). Can't wait for Molly to be old enough to understand what's going on.

I love Christmas and not because of the presents. It's about family and friends coming together to enjoy ones company.

Hope you all had a fantastic Christmas.

More Movies & Christmas Eve

2011-12-24T23:27:00.000-08:00

Today I continued my movie watching marathon with 50/50 and Happy Feet Two.

I wanted to see 50/50 when it came out in the theater, like most movies but at the time I was in the middle of a lot of crappy stuff (work). Previews and commercials kept tauting this as a comedy and though it had elements of humor I think I cried more then I laughed. I mean the story is about a young man who finds out he has cancer. I enjoyed the acting very much, the story was good and not complicated at all. Watching the main character go through the process of finding out he has cancer, chemo, finding out it's not working and then surgery reminded me of my Dad and how alone and scared he must have felt when going in for his first chemo treatment. My only complaint if you can call it that was the main character not breaking down or crying sooner. He eventually does and it's a huge emotional moment but I think it came a bit too late in the film.. but then again I guess to each his own. I'd call his a Dramady and give it a solid B rating.

Next was Happy Feet Two. I had seen Happy Feet in the theaters and was surprised at how much I enjoyed the first movie. And I have to say this was a pretty good follow up. I don't think the songs were has catchy as the first but I enjoyed the "simple" story and the interactions of the characters. I think if you enjoyed the first movies you'll enjoy the second movie. I rate this film with a B-

After the movies I headed over to my brothers where I would be spending the night since I wanted to be there in the morning when my nephew Kenobi (now 2 1/2) would be coming down to Christmas after Santa was there. This is the first year that he actually kinda understand about Santa and gifts. So I opted to go down tonight and stay over.

Merry Christmas Eve everyone!!!

Catching Up On Movies

2011-12-23T22:13:00.000-08:00

Though I had other things I should have been doing today I sat down and watched three of my DVD screeners.

First up was Puss in Boots. I wanted to see this when he came out in theaters but just didn't have the time. I enjoyed the character from the Shrek movies so it was nice to see him get his own film. I really enjoyed this movie. It was fun, whimsical and had a good story. A very nice addition to the "Shrek" universe. I give this movie a B

Next up was The Help. Again wanted to see in the theater but didn't. I was really excited when I got the screener even though it had been out on DVD for a week or so. Anyways I loved this movie. I thought the acting was fantastic, the character were engaging. I loved the "good" people and hated the "bad" people. Every time I watch one of these movies set in the "civil rights" era it amazes me at how horrible human being can be. This was just over 50 years ago. I know there are still bigots out there, especially in the southern states but how could anyone treat any human beings that way... it just makes me sick to my stomach. At least they showed that not all "white" folks were bad or racists. Wonderful movie a must see for sure. I give this movie an A

And finally I watched Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, which actually opens on Christmas Day. This is the Tom Hanks/Sandra Bullock movie about 9/11. Well it's really about a boy who loses his father at the World's Trade Center on 9/11 and how he deals with it. This was very dramatic, lots of emotions. It was heart wrenching at times but also heart warming. It would flash back and forth from 9/11 to one year after 9/11. I love both Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock, though Hanks really doesn't have a huge role in this. The movie really relies on the son and he's a very troubled boy (may have Asperger’s), to the point where it's sometimes hard to watch. This is the actor Thomas Horn's first movie role and I think he does a pretty incredible job. Though I can't watch this movie over and over again I'm glad I saw it and I can see it getting some Oscar buzz. I give this movie a B+

So all in all a pretty great day of moving watching. As I've said before if you wish to join me for a movie or two let me know. I have lots of the current movies in theaters and always welcome the company.

Confessions of a Fanboy #5

2011-12-22T21:45:00.000-08:00

Spent the day editing and posting Confessions of a Fanboy #5

On today's episode we have the Confession of a Fangirl, Rachael Berkey. Here's a quick bio on Rachael. She has a great blog that you can read HERE , you can also follow her on twitter @bookoisseur, where she shares her musings on books, Star Wars and whatever TV show she’s currently obsessed with despite her lack of cable. She is a writer living in New England and learning the ins & outs of trying to get a book published. Don’t get her started on her favorite book; she may never stop talking.

So take a listen as I chat geek with Rachael.

Download from Itunes: ow.ly/88ozz or listen/direct download ow.ly/88ozA

Dating... Again

2011-12-21T18:00:00.000-08:00

Wow.. never thought I would be doing this again.. but after eight years I'm getting back out there in the dating pool. I hate dating, I've always hated dating but it's a necessary evil to find that person whom I'm going to spend the rest of my life with. The scary thing is I'm currently 40 pounds heavier and have less hair on top then I did eight years ago and I had a hard time then finding someone to love me.

Upside is I'm much wiser and more determined to find that special someone whom I will spend the rest of our lives together. I know what I like and what I don't like. I've learned what I can live with and what I absolutely can't live with. I know now if I see "red" flags, I need to pay attention to them and not ignore them like I've done the past.

It's always tough finding people to date since I don't do the bar scene and most of my gay friends are taken. I do have some straight friends who tell me they have the perfect person for me and then send me a link to their friends facebook page and I read what they like and we have nothing in common, other then both being gay. So I'm not opposed to being set up with someone but please make sure that we have something more in common then just being gay. I may go back to online dating since that is how I found my ex eight years ago.

So wish me luck.. there has a be a geek out there who will love me for me.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Trailer

2011-12-20T20:01:00.000-08:00

So they just released a full on 2 plus minute trailer for the first half of the new Hobbit movie. We knew it was going to be playing in front of Tin Tin which starts tomorrow but a few hours ago the buzz started popping up on twitter that they were going to release it at 7pm PST on Apple Trailer website. And about 6:45pm it was up and I spent the next hour watching it 15 times and reading all the very excited buzz happening all over the social media. From the first music note I had chills and by the time it was over and we hear that now famous word "Precious" I was in tears. It's going to be an amazing film. I'm so glad Peter Jackson took control of the movies as they have the same look and feel as The Lord of the Rings trilogy and that is AWESOME!!! Here's the trailer is you haven't seen it yet.

PGA DVD Screeners

2011-12-20T15:34:00.000-08:00

One of the big benefit of being a member of the PGA, Producer's Guild of America is that I get movie screeners towards the end of the year. Every year I get about 25 to 30 movies. Most years I would say that about half of the movies I get are ones that I know very little about and really aren't movies I would normally watch. But this year has been a pretty good year and I've gotten some top notch screeners. Of course I can't loan these out to anyone (against PGA rules) but I'm always open for doing movie nights at my house or your place if you want to see some of these. Let me know if you're interested in watching any of these.

The Help * Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2 * Rango * Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close * Kung Fu Panda 2 * Puss in Boots * The Descendants * Bridesmaids * The First Grader * Pirates of the Caribbean On Stranger Tides * Cars 2 * Like Crazy * The Adventures of Tin Tin * Young Adult * Hugo * Super 8 * A Dangerous Method * Tinker, Tailer, Soldier, Spy * Happy Feet Two * Carnage * Rampart * War Horse * Moneyball * Midnight in Paris * The Ides of March * Warrior * J. Edgar * The Tree of Life * Contagion * The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo * 50/50 * My Week With Marilyn * The Artist

Geek Love

2011-12-19T21:00:00.000-08:00

TLC's "Geek Love" aired two half hour episodes of what could be a new series depending on the ratings. When I first saw the preview I wasn't sure how they were going to portray us Geeks so I was a little tentative when I sat down to watch both episodes. After 2 minutes I was loving it!!

The premise is cameras follow Ryan Giltch, founder of a service called Sci-Fi Speed Dating and these two episodes take place at New York Comic Con. They focused on 3 people in each episode. The characters are endearing, maybe it's because I can identify with them. With the first episode there were 2 guys and a girl. One guy was your average geek, was into video games and comic books. The second guy was really into Star Wars but was extremely socially awkward (he talked mostly in wookie) and the girl was in between having never been on a "real" date and she was 22. When watching this they really make you want these guys to find love.. and by the end when 2 out of the 3 find a date you really feel bad for the one who did not. They then follow those who found dates on their first date and it's cute to see them connect and really hit it off.

The Second episode followed 2 girls and 1 guy and like the first episode you instantly care about these people and want them to find true geek love. One of the girl brought her mom with her to con and there are a few awkward moments when the girl and a guy who connected with her during speed dating are trying to have semi-date walking the floor of comic con with mom by her side. The other two people they are following actually meet and go out on a date and there seems to be real chemistry there.

I hope they pick up this series as I think it's a really cool concept. Yes it shows geeks at their worse (extremely socially awkward) but it also shows geeks at their best (just die hard fans). It shows a wide variety of geeks and that not all of us are basement dwellers with very little social skills. I actually saved these two episodes as I will be watching them again, as there is something endearing about this series that really touch my heart.

Kenny's 1st Annual Christmas Party - Day Two

2011-12-18T19:22:00.000-08:00

I was up around 7:30 but stayed in bed and wanted to wait for the majority of the folks to get up. Around 8:30am most folks were up so I went into the kitchen and did a little clean up so I could have some working space to make breakfast.

For breakfast I made eggs, hash browns, sausages, bacon and toast. While I made breakfast folks played a few games of the card game Flux. Breakfast took me a bit longer then it normally does as I was making double the amount of things I normally make. But we finally ate breakfast around 10am.

After breakfast a few of the ladies left leaving 10 people to continue the party, Chris, Josh, Jes, Anthony, Doug, Kevin, Luis, Aaron, Rupert and of course Me... we voted on either doing a hike at Vasquez then coming back for a Christmas movie or doing a movie first then a hike at Vasquez Rocks. Well hike first won out so we jumped into several cars and drove over to Vasquez Rocks. Once again our fearless leader Chris took us on an adventure. We had seen a cave on our previous hike and he wanted to hike to his cave today. We had brought plenty of water this time so I was all for the hike. About halfway to the cave we lost one member of our party. Actually Luis wasn't feeling so hot so he opted to sit and rest while the rest of us continued. We told him we would make our way back to him on our hike back. I didn't like the idea of leaving someone behind, especially since he wasn't feeling good. But he was sitting on a hill that we could see while we continued to hike.

We made it to the cave and hung out there for fifteen minutes or so before starting the trek back. I noticed that we weren't going the same way back and inquired about picking up Luis. Chris informed me that Luis texted him and said he not feeling well and was going to go back to the car himself... yeah I didn't like this idea. Anyways we made our way back to the car and the trip was pretty uneventful. As we were getting close to the car Josh says.. Hey there's Luis, who was just getting back to the car as well. Thank goodness as if we would have gotten back to the car and he wasn't there I would have panicked and called in the national guard to search Vasquez Rocks. The hike was a success and we all had a really good time and as always Chris is a fantastic navigator.

After the hike we headed back to my house to watch a Christmas movie. Again we opted for two movies A Christmas Story and Scrooged. We voted and A Christmas Story won out. So we all gathered into my TV room and watched A Christmas Story. After the movie it was lunch time and as tradition calls for we went to Islands for lunch.

Once we were back from Islands the party was officially over and folks started to pack up and leave. A few folks stayed behind as we were exchanging gifts. I had made extra special homemade gifts for my friends Chris, Anthony and Josh. And I also bought some Star Wars gifts for my buddy Chris. Chris got me some AWESOME Star Wars 12 inch figures in great display cases, there were three C3PO, Redeemed Anikan Skywalker and Aurra Sing. And the final gift tonight was from my buddy Josh who hand made me a golden snitch from Harry Potter.. it was incredibly beautiful and a perfect way to end this wonderful weekend.

I just want to thank Chris, Josh, Jes, Anthony, Doug, Kevin, Luis, Aaron, Rupert, Jen, Anne, Nicki and Kim for making my 1st Annual Christmas Party Extravaganza a success. This has been an incredible year of ups and downs for me but finding you guys (my friends) and celebrating one of my most favorite holidays couldn't have been a better way to end this year.

You can see more pictures from this fun weekend HERE

Kenny's 1st Annual Christmas Party - Day One

2011-12-17T23:56:00.000-08:00


Homemade Christmas gifts - Snowman

Woke up early as I normally do as I can't sleep because of the awesomeness that is about to happen today. First thing I did was try and wrap my home made Christmas presents. Well that didn't go as planned so I opted to just leave them be and place them under the Christmas Tree. Since everyone was getting the same thing I figured it didn't ruin the surprise.

The only thing I had to do before the party was get propane. Luckily for me the gas station down the street from my place sells propane so I grabbed my empty tank and headed over. But there was an issue, I was trying to use an older tank and I guess the valve rusted shut and we couldn't open the tank. So I had to jump back into my jeep and drive back up the dirt road to my house and grab my second propane tank and go back down the hill. That one worked so I filled it up and now everything was ready for the party. When I got back to my house my 2nd guest Rupert (Jes being my first) showed up. From 10am to Noon other folks started to show up. We prepped snack foods and drinks and the party official began.

We started off with a few games of Flux (if you don't know what Flux is, it's a pretty awesome card game). I then started to BBQ, after a few grill issues which Anthony and Chris fixed, thanks guy.. we got cooking. While I cooked the gang got a game in of extreme bocce ball. I'd run out and watch and take pictures but had to keep an eye on the BBQ and get everything ready for lunch.

One of the best things that happen this weekend was I got to finally meet Josh. We started as twitter friends and really hit it off. He's one of those rare people that you just know you were meant to have in your life. I found him on facebook and we friended each other there as well and our friendship continued to grow. Anyways long story short we tried to hook up several times but timing has been off and I totally forgot he RSVP'd for the party so when this guy drove up on a motorcycle I couldn't figure out who it was. As I got closer he pulled off his helmet and had a huge smile on his face and it hit me.. OMG IT'S JOSH!!! It was like two long lost friends seeing each other after years of being apart. We hugged and hugged I couldn't contain my excitement in finally meeting/seeing him in person, best Christmas gift EVER!!

I finished up prepping lunch and called everyone in. We all ate lunch and chatted. Once lunch was over the gang split into two groups. One went to play extreme bocce ball while the other stayed inside and watched some "Christmas" movies. I went out and played bocce ball. As we were playing it started to sprinkle but we continued until we finished the game before heading in.

We then started to decorate the delicious Christmas cookies that Anne had made. That was a lot of fun. Anne brought all the things you need to decorate, half of use decorated while the other half visited or watched us. It was some good times.

After cookies Chris and I drove over to Pizza Hut so I could pick up dinner for the night. Got back and everyone ate. Chris and I also did a shot as I was holding off on drinking as I knew I needed to drive to get the pizza. Everyone socialized for a bit. I had mentioned to Chris last time that I consider most of these guys really good friends but I really don't know much about them. He suggested we play a drinking game called "I Never". If you don't know what that is, one person says "I never went skinny dipping" and those who have must drink. Got to find out a few interesting details about my friends... but as we say "What happens at Kenny's parties, stay at Kenny's parties"

We split again, half went to watch Die Hard in the TV room while the rest of us moved on to a drinking game that we were introduced to at the last movie marathon weekend.. Asshole. That was loads of fun.. well maybe not for everyone, but the majority of the folks seemed to have enjoyed it. Around 1am folks started to get tired. Unlike last time folks started to drink early so they were wiped out. I did my best to find a place for everyone to crash. This was the most we've every had staying the night.. 14 people. Luckily I have a king size bed and surprising can old 3 people. I think I finally fell asleep around 3am.

So day one comes to an end. Didn't get to watch as many Christmas movies as I expected but then again I really didn't want this to be a movie marathon and more of a fun social party which is exactly what it was. And we still have lots of fun things planned for tomorrow.

You can see more pictures from this fun weekend HERE

Party Prep & Dinner

2011-12-16T23:58:00.000-08:00

Today I spent the majority of the day getting ready for my Christmas Party weekend. I had to go food shopping but the big thing was that I had to finish about 20 of my handmade Christmas gifts as I was giving one to each person who was coming this weekend and they were far from being complete.

Spent the majority of the day working on my Christmas gifts, but atlas didn't get them all done. I did get my food shopping for the weekend done and managed to clean my entire house. I'm in good shape.

Also during the evening I made some dinner plans to hang out with some old friends that I don't get to see as much as I would like to. We met out in Burbank at a place I had never been do Granville Cafe. I got there first and managed to find a place to park. The other guys were not so lucky. Bruce showed up next followed by Tom and finally Ervin. The place had a great atmosphere and the food was good, but my favorite part was just hanging with these guys. We use to get together on a weekly bases for a TV night every week when I lived closer but now that I'm live a bit further away we don't get to see each over very often. But when we do it's like no time has passed. Thanks guys for a fun evening.

I got back home around 10pm and my friend Jes who was coming to my Christmas Party Weekend arrived early. She live up in the San Fransisco area and drives in the night before for these events. We visited for about a half hour before she went to bed and I went back to work on finishing my Christmas gifts. Around midnight I finished everything except wrapping them which I will take care of tomorrow before my guests arrive.

I'm very excited for this weekend.. I love my friends and can't wait to spread some holiday cheer with them.

Disneyland & Star Tours

2011-12-15T23:46:00.000-08:00

After my trouble with my Jeep I was happy to be on my way to Disneyland. My buddy Andrew and I planned to ride Star Tours the entire time. We arrived at the park around 2pm (a few hours behind schedule), we grabbed a few corn dogs for lunch and then walked over to Tomorrow Land where Star Tours is located. When we got there Andrew wanted to get a picture of us in front of the Star Tours sign. So we asked a young girl to take a picture of us. As we stood there a Disneyland employee walked over to us and said you look like a Star Wars fan ( I was wearing my R2D2 Mickey cap). She asked if we did the ride yet and we said no. She put her hand into her pocket and pulled out some fast passes and said "here, this will get you started". At first she gave us a pair then she gave us seven fast passes that were good all day long since the times were 9:30am to 10am.

We couldn't believe our luck. We knew having these would be a huge help today. And the cool thing was that we went and got another fast pass for 6:30pm so we had four fast passes each and one extra. So we opted to use a pass first as the line was pretty long. And after that we would stand in line then use a pass if the line looked too long. We did this all night. We stopped a few times for bathroom and food breaks but we rode Star Tours a total of 10 times before we called it a night. The cool thing is we saw every scenario after ride number seven. Also Andrew was selected during our 5th ride as the Rebel Spy. I also tweeted after every ride with what we saw... Here are those tweets.

"Star Tour ride #1 - Stormtroopers, Tatooine (podracers), Admiral Ackbar and Naboo. In line for ride #2 #StarToursMarathon "

"Star Tours ride #2 - Stormtroopers, Tatooine (podracers), Princess Leia, and Death Star. In line for ride #3 #StarToursMarathon"

"Star Tours ride #3 - Darth Vader, Hoth, Admiral Ackbar, and Coruscant. In line for ride #4 #StarToursMarathon"

"Star Tours ride #4 - Darth Vader, Hoth, Admiral Ackbar and Coruscant. In line for ride #5 #StarToursMarathon"

"Star Tours ride #5 - Stormtroopers, Kashyyk, Princess Leia, and Coruscant. In line for ride #6 @andrewseely rebel spy #StarToursMarathon"

"Star Tours ride #6 - Stormtroopers, Tatooine (podracers), Admiral Ackbar, and Naboo. In line for ride #7 #StarToursMarathon"

"Star Tours ride #7 - Darth Vader, Hoth, Yoda, and Coruscant. 7 rounds & we've seen everything, even been a spy. #StarToursMarathon"

"Star Tours ride #8 - Darth Vader, Hoth, Princess Leia, and Coruscant. Plan to go back for a 9th time.. Possibly 10th. #StarToursMarathon"

"Star Tours ride #9 - Darth Vader, Kashyyk, Yoda, and Coruscant. In line for our 10th and final ride tonight. #StarToursMarathon"

"Star Tours ride #10 - Stormtroopers, Hoth, Princess Leia, and Coruscant. We did it!! 10 times in 9 hours. BEYOND EPIC!!! #StarToursMarathon"

It was a pretty incredible day. Never thought I would go to Disneyland and ride one ride all day long but it wasn't has hard as I thought it would be. We could have gone more times if we had time but by 11pm we were spent and we accomplished 10 times, which felt great. It was a great experience and one that I will remember for many years to come.

2011-12-15T21:39:00.000-08:00

Jeep Woes

2011-12-15T14:47:00.000-08:00

Today I got up early and was really excited as I was going to Disneyland with my buddy Andrew. I was driving down the 14 and almost got to the 5 when I was going up an hill and noticed that my acceleration was decreasing even though I was pushing down the gas harder and harder. I knew something was wrong and made my way to the side of the freeway and parked. As I stopped my jeep smoke started to billow out of the hood. I jumped out and opened my hood and saw some sort of liquid all over the engine. My first thought was I blew a head gasket and that it was oil all over the place. There goes me trip to Disney today :(

I called AAA and as I waited I swore to myself that I wouldn't put anymore big money into this jeep. I would have to buy a new car, which in turn would mean I would have to cancel my England/Ireland trip. I was hoping it wasn't the head gasket and something much more cheaper. About 10 minutes passed when the tow truck arrived. The guy gave it a quick look and noticed that one of my hoses was off and that's were all the liquid came from. That actually made me feel a bit better. He also mentioned that it was my transmission line and not oil, which makes sense why I lost acceleration. Now the only question is did I cause any internal damage getting over to the curb. Luckily I didn't drive more then a few minutes after the issue happened.

The tow truck to me to a local repair shop and after a two hour wait, they replaced two hoses and gave my jeep a clean bill of health. Only cost me $125 which isn't bad, compared to what I thought it would cost. So England/Ireland trip is still on and I'll continue to drive this car until it's next big repair.

Also since it was only a few hours I continued on to my friends Andrews and we headed to Disneyland (that will be my next blog).

Visiting my 3 Day Old Niece

2011-12-14T23:42:00.000-08:00

Today I went down to visit family. Had lunch with my pops and then went Christmas shopping with him and finished all my shopping (with exception to one person). The plus side of visiting pops today is Lora and Molly got home from the hospital today. So I go to visit with my 3 day old Niece. And my Mom was visiting as well so I got to visit with my entire family which was great. Molly looks to have lost a bit of weight but she's still as adorable as ever. I got to cuddle with her for a bit which was great. Spent about six hours visiting.. it was some good times.

Shipping Presents

2011-12-13T23:36:00.000-08:00

Well it's a little later then expected but I finally was able to ship out presents to my friends in other states as well as other countries. Friends in other states will get their Christmas gifts in time for Christmas. Friends out of the country might not, as I missed the guarantee deliver deadline by one day. :( But they did say that it will more then likely get there before Christmas. It's crazy expensive to ship things internationally. I sent three packages to England/Ireland and each one cost between $35 - $40 each to ship. Luckily I love the guys I sent them too so it's all good. :)

New Addition to the Family

2011-12-12T20:30:00.000-08:00

Got I call from my brother at 8:30am this morning. He informed me that Lora (my pregnant sister-in-law's) water had broken and they were off to the hospital. It didn't come as a surprise as she is due and was actually going to go in next week to give birth (C section). He told me not to rush over as they weren't sure when she would be actually giving birth. I had stuff to do around the house so I took care of all that stuff. It was pouring rain outside and I really hate driving in it so I kept putting off leaving hoping it was lighten up a bit.. well it didn't and around noon I headed over. It's normally a 2 hour drive to the hospital but with the rain it took me about 3 hour to get there. I actually got there about 15 minutes before my brother came out with his new daughter Molly Skye. She is 8 pounds, 10 ounces and 19 3/4 inches long. She's perfect in every way. Got to spend about 2 second with her before she was whisked off to the nursery. Went back to the waiting room with my Mom, Chuck (step dad), Vicki (Lora's Mom) and Wendy (Lora's sister). About a half hour later Mom and Chuck left and Lora was moved to a temporary room so she could be watched. We were able to go in one at a time and visit her. I spent about five minutes in there to see how Lora was doing. She was feeling great and happy that Molly was finally out. After another hour they moved her to her room (she's staying in the hospital for 2 days). I popped in and said goodbye before heading home. Again it took me about 3 hours to get home and it was still pouring down rain. So I spent 6 hours on the rain soaked roads but it was totally worth it to welcome my new niece into the world.

Happy Birthday Molly Skye Mittleider!!!

Lazy Sunday

2011-12-11T23:04:00.000-08:00

Well it actually wasn't a Lazy Sunday as I did edit my next MASH 4077 Podcast and made some more Christmas gifts but for the most part I really didn't do as much as I hope to. But I do have an excuse as I'm still not feeling 100%, this stupid cold is holding on. I started to feel better for a few days then I'd wake up and not feel so hot.

Another good thing about Sunday, so much good TV is on. My most anticipated show this season is Once Upon A Time.. I say it every week.. I LOVE THIS SERIES!! If you're not watching it you're really missing out on something special. It did really well in the ratings when it first came out but the past few episodes the ratings have been a bit softer. I'm hoping it's because of the holidays and when it comes back in January the rating will get back up to the numbers of it's premiere. It did get picked up for a full season (22 episodes) so that makes me happy and it's still the #1 new Drama on ABC. As for the show I'm loving the story, the back and forth from "real" world to "fairytale" world is so well done. I'm a huge fantasy lover and I'm really enjoying how they are envisioning these fairytale characters. Now it's on it's holiday hiatus and will return early January.

Another show I really love is Amazing Race. This is the 19th season and the finale. This season has had it's ups and downs and the finally really was so loop sided as one team really pulled ahead and never lost the lead. I'm happy with the winner, they ran a great race and really deserved to win. Now I have to wait for season 20, which I know they shot just not sure when it will premiere.

LOTR - Fellowship of the Ring - 10 Year Anniversary

2011-12-10T19:36:00.000-08:00

Today is the 10th anniversary of the release of Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. Can't believe it's been 10 years already. I remember going to the midnight showing of Fellowship and just being in awe. I saw the movie 3 times during the opening week and a few more times before it left the theaters. Fellowship is my favorite movie of the trilogy, I felt it was more of a buddy film then an action/battle movie like the other two. This entire trilogy is in my top ten of all time favorite movies and I'm really excited to The Hobbit.

War Horse - Review

2011-12-09T22:46:00.000-08:00

Today my buddy Andrew and I went out to lunch and then came back to my house to watch War Horse. This movie doesn't come out until Christmas Day. So it's kind of nice to get a sneak preview of it.

So before I saw this movie all I knew is that it was directed by Steven Spielberg and I did see a preview with Immortals and it look pretty good.

I was expecting this hard core war movie and since Spielberg was directing it, I thought it was going to be incrediable. Well it's a good movie, beautifully shot, directed and acted. The story is super light. Lots of war and killing going on but no blood, it's definately PG. It's sad at times but from what folks were telling me I was expecting to be balling. I did cry a few times but nothing like I thought I would. I love the idea of following the war through the eyes of a horse. You get to see the British side of things, then the innocent side and finally the German side. It bugged me that everyone spoke English (but I understand why they did that).. and come to find out that this movie is based on a British children's novel, which makes so much sense. I'm glad I saw it and I think if I watch it again I will enjoy it even more since I know where the source material comes from.

I give War Horse a 7 out of 10.

Christmas in Eureka

2011-12-08T21:31:00.000-08:00

Tonight one of my favorite TV series, Eureka air it's Christmas episode and all I have to say is WOW!! I had heard that parts of it were going to be animated but I had no idea of the extent of it. It went from 3D, to 2D to claymation and finally ended with anime. The story was fun, silly and touching. This episode had nothing to do with the current storyline and it really didn't need to. It was a just fun story and I can see this becoming a annual viewing. It also made me realize how much I miss seeing new episodes of Eureka and that I'm very thankful that we have at least 13 more episodes before the series ends.

Death, Christmas & Friends

2011-12-07T23:59:00.000-08:00

Woke up this morning to some very sad news. Harry Morgan who is best known for his role as Colonel Potter on MASH died at the age of 96 today. Potter is and will always be my favorite MASH character and his death really hit me hard. Can't be sad though as he had a very successful and wonderful life. I'll be doing a special tribute episode of my MASH podcast for him in the next week or so.

Got three more DVD screeners, Kung Fu Panda 2 (which I really wanted to see so I'm happy I got it), Puss in Boots (Another movie I really wanted to see in the theater but never did) and Decedents (which I never heard of but found out it's a George Clooney flick).

I finished one of my homemade Christmas gifts. I made nine of them and really wish I made more but I guess they are very special gifts and they should only be given to those really close to me. I'm very happy with them, every time I make them I tweak them just a bit and I think I finally have them exactly how I want them... I'll talk about them more after Christmas as many of my friends read my blog and some of those will be getting this gift, which I will call "The Box".

Got to talk to my good buddy Thomas from Ireland. It's been a while since we chatted and I got to spend a good half-hour chatting with him. He's one person I'm looking forward to hanging out with when I go on my trip to England/Ireland in May.

And to end my night I got to hang out with my buddy Will. We grabbed some dinner at Pitfire and then headed back to his place to watch a movie. I had brought all my screeners and he choose Super 8. I had seen it in the theater but was happy to see it again and I'm glad I did. I enjoyed it the first time but I really enjoyed it the second time. After the movie he showed me this new game Skyrim. I've heard so much about it and since I don't play I don't know much about it. I created a character and played for about 30 minutes before realizing it was already after 1am. By the way I suck at playing. I had a hard time moving my head and walk/running at the same time. Will said you get use to it but it was pretty comical watching me play the same. I did enjoy creating my character, I was amazed at how detailed you can make your character.

Drove home and ended my night like I do most nights with an episode of The Simpson and finally went to bed around 3am.

Wizarding World of Harry Potter Hollywood

2011-12-06T22:29:00.000-08:00

Yep.. there have been rumors about they doing another Harry Potter theme park since the one in Orlando has been a HUGE success. Rumors had it coming to Los Angeles but Universal Studios here in Hollywood is so small and people weren't sure where they would put it. Well it was officially announced today that yes indeed they were adding the Wizarding World to the current Universal Studios in Hollywood.

Here's part of the official press release:

Hollywood, CA (Dec. 6, 2011) – Warner Bros. Entertainment and Universal Parks and Resorts today announced a partnership to bring The Wizarding World of Harry Potter – the enormously popular themed entertainment environment which debuted in Orlando in June 2010 – to Universal Studios Hollywood.

The two companies also announced their plans to significantly expand The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Orlando Resort.

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios Hollywood will be as impressive as what has been created in Orlando – and is expected to transform tourism in Los Angeles for decades to come. It will be a fully immersive environment for the entire family that brings the stories of Harry Potter to life and is faithful to the visual landscape of the films, including a majestic Hogwarts castle to serve as the centerpiece of the themed environment. The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios Hollywood will be created with the same commitment to authenticity and the same level of talent and resources as its Orlando counterpart.

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Orlando Resort opened in June 2010 and immediately captured global attention. It is a spectacularly themed land that includes Hogwarts castle, Hogsmeade and multiple themed attractions. Specific details of its expansion will be announced over time.

“The announcement of our partnership with Universal to bring The Wizarding World of Harry Potter to Hollywood and expand what already exists in Orlando is probably the best holiday gift we could give to the legions of Harry Potter fans worldwide,” said Barry Meyer, Chairman & CEO, Warner Bros. “Everyone involved with these projects is committed to continuing the enchantment of J.K. Rowling’s masterful books as they were brought to life on screen in our eight films and dedicated to extending the magic of the experience for generations of fans to come.”

“The Wizarding World of Harry Potter is an entirely new level of themed entertainment that brings the stories of Harry Potter to life in incredible ways,” said Tom Williams, Chairman and CEO, Universal Parks and Resorts. “We are thrilled to be able to share this experience with our guests in Hollywood. And we are thrilled to take what has been created in Orlando to even greater levels.”

I'm so excited for this and honestly when it does open and if I'm still living in the area I'm going to try and get a job there.. how cool would it be to go to work at Hogsmeade/Hogwarts everyday.

Image courtesy of Hypable.com

There are no details about where it's going to go other then in the existing park.. but rumors are flying that they are going to get rid of the Gibson Amphitheatre and use that area and the land behind it... guess will have to wait and see. They also didn't give any details about what they are going to build for the park.. will it be Hogsmeade like in Orlando or maybe they'll do Diagon Alley and Gringots Bank. Guess will just have to wait and see.. but I for one am very excited!!!

I Think It's Monday

2011-12-05T21:58:00.000-08:00

Being out of work really screws with your sense of time. I really don't have a clue what day of the week most days are. I'll either see something on TV that reminds me of the day or I actually have to look it up on my calendar. Well today is Monday and I'm still sick. But of course I'm not sick enough to try and get things done. It's only a few weeks before Christmas and I still have a ton of shopping to do and some of those folks I have to ship their presents to them. So I took some dayquil in hopes that I could survive out of the house for a few hours.

And I did pretty good. I did manage to go to Target and get pretty much everything I went out for. Grabbed some lunch at El Pollo and then crashed when I got back home. After a few hours of TV and rest I worked on my second homemade Christmas gift. I worked on those for about three hours and got alot of it done, which makes me happy. A few more things and those will be done.. now for my other Christmas gift those are more detailed and take a lot longer to complete.. but I'm working on it.

I did a bit podcast editing, but not nearly as much as I wanted to do. And speaking of podcasts I checked out my podcast reviews on itunes for my Knights of the Guild podcast and saw that I got a 3 star review and when I went to read it, this person complemented the podcast but then at the end of the review wrote this "Kenny comes off a bit snobbish & into himself because he's involved in the production of the show."I guess that's why he gave me 3 stars out of 5. Out of the 70 reviews all but three are 4 or 5 stars and are positive. I have 1 two star and 2 three stars. And a previous review said that "Kenny likes to name drop, like he's a big shot".

You know 98% positive is great and I know there are haters out there who can't help but hate.. that's what they do. So it doesn't bother me when I get these negative reviews but it's still surprising when it happens because it rarely does.

Of course I put it out there in the tweeter and facebook world that I got this negative review and all my wonderful friends came to my rescue with kind comments and encouragement.. Thanks guys.

The Misadventures of Kenny Changing a Flat Tire

2011-12-04T16:49:00.000-08:00

Well I went out to my jeep to grab some dinner tonight and noticed that my back tire is going flat. I first considered trying to try to drive to the local gas station to fill it up, temperately. As I don't have much luck when changing tires. But I know it's bad to drive on a flat and I can see the nail sticking out of the tire so I opted to change it. Now at this time I don't know if my spare if good or not. I've had so many flat tired in the past year I can't remember... but I take a chance.

I grab my lug nut wrench and start to loosen the lug nuts before I start to jack the jeep up. Since it happened at home and my drive way is dirt and gravel I have two large slabs of concrete that I like to put under the jack so the jack doesn't collapse like it has in the past. I jacked the car up and there were no issues.. I started to unscrew the nuts.. one done, two done, three done, four done.. things are going well until I get to the fifth nut. Unlike the other four this one is tough to get off. I keep telling myself lefty loosie, tighty righty, just so I knew I was doing it the right way. I struggled to unscrew that nut for about 10 minutes and after about five rotations..wham.. it fell off. I pulled the tire off and examined the lugs and noticed that my fifth one was shiny and jagged. I checked the wrench and sure enough the nut and part of the lug broke off and now were jammed in the wrench. This is my only lug nut wrench so I had to get those bits out before I could proceed. So I opted to go to my garage to find something that I could try and pry the jammed nut out with it. I first tried a pair of pliers with no luck. I then grabbed a chisel and it had a sharp edge that I might be able to slip in and pry them apart. Only problem is that the chisel is still in it's packaging when we purchased it. So I attempt to open it and do so but in the process I slice my thumb open. For a little cut bleed a lot. I quickly grabbed a paper towel to stop the blood from getting all over the place. And another 10 minutes of almost slicing more digits off I manged to get the nut out of the lug nut wrench.

So my flat tire is off. All my tools are working properly and now I attempted to take off my spare tire (still don't know if it's good). There was only one issue, my spare tire has a lock nut on it. Because it's attached to my back door (I have a Jeep Wrangler if you didn't know). So I had to find the "key". I searched my glove box where it's normally at and of course it's not there. I search all throughout my car and I can't find it. I then remember that some things will sometimes fall back behind the glove box and into the dash of my car so I remover the glove box and shove my hand into the dark space feeling around for the lug nut key.. success.. I found it and as I pull my hand out I run it across something sharp and it tears about an half of inch of skin off my other hand... and I'm bleeding again.

I pull off the spare and it seems to be okay (know with luck today I really expected it to be flat as well). I replace the spare, this time with only four of the five nuts. (which should be okay) and I put the flat back on the back of my jeep and hopefully will get that repaired soon. I lowered the car and the tire looks great. Took about an hour to change and sliced two hands open but I did get the tired changed and the jeep didn't fall on me.. so I think it was a success.

Green Lantern - Review

2011-12-04T15:32:00.000-08:00

So I finally was able to sit down and watch Green Lantern. I wanted to see this when it came out during the summer but those were crazy times and I wasn't able to. Well I recently got it on blu ray for only $9.99 and watched it today. Quick review.. I LOVED IT!!!

I so don't understand why so many folks disliked it so much. I did watch the Extended Edition, so I don't know how different it is from the theatrical version. But I really enjoyed it. I thought it was entertaining, the special effects were fantastic, the acting was good and I thought it was a good origin story for Hal Jordan's Green Lantern. I heard so many bad things about the actress Blake Lively but I thought she did a pretty good job. I mean it wasn't that big of a part but when she was on screen it was fine. I really am trying to figure out why folks didn't like so much. Oh well all that really matters is that I enjoyed it and really I did.. can't wait for part two.

I watched all the Blu Ray extras and they were all very interesting and entertaining.

I give Green Lantern 8 out of 10

Homemade Christmas Gifts

2011-12-03T17:30:00.000-08:00

Here's a hint at one of them :)

I love making Homemade Christmas gifts for me friends, I have two very cool "go to" gifts that I make every year. I normally go back and forth from year to year on which one I make. If you are one of my older friends you probably have one of these gifts. Well since I'm out of work and funds are low I decided to make both gifts this year. Both take a lot of work and honestly I'm not that crafty so don't ask me how I ever came up with the ideas, but I did. I'm not going to go into great detail about the gifts as many of my friends who read my blog will be getting one or both :) One is very whimsical and fun and the other is very sweet and thoughtful. I hope my friends like them.. as they are made with love and appreciation.

Christmas Shopping

2011-12-03T15:20:00.000-08:00

So I was feeling a bit better today and thought I would venture out of the house. First stop was Chili's for some lunch. As I was pulling into Target I felt a wave of nausea coming over me. I pushed it away as I needed to get some shopping done but while in Target I started to feel dizzy and knew that I needed to get home quick. I did manage to buy one gift for my sister-in-law so the trip wasn't a total waste but man just when I think I'm feeling better.. WHAM!!!

Skyping with a Friend

2011-12-02T21:13:00.000-08:00

Tonight my buddy Russ and I decided to have a voice chat on Skype. Russ and I have been friends for almost a year and we are both podcasters and listen to each others podcast. We text chat via skype, twitter and facebook but never voice chat. Well two plus hours later we finally had to say good night as it was past 3am his time (he lives in England). I adore Russ and never thought I would like him even more.. but after chatting about everything for two hours I like him even more. I got to know him a little better and I hope he got to know me a bit better. We decided that were going to try and make it a somewhat weekly thing as we both enjoyed ones company so much. Can't wait to actual hang out with him while I'm visiting England next year.

Knights of the Guild Ep 37

2011-12-02T17:59:00.000-08:00

Knights of the Guild Episode 37

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

Today’s show features:

    * Knights of the Guild opening theme composed by Brian Arnold with Tweex Music http://tweexmusic.com
    * What the Cast is Up too
    * "From the Archives" Interview with Robin Thorsen from Season 2
    * Interview with Season 5 lead Make Up artist Kim

Thank you again for all your support, I do this podcast because I am a fan myself and love taking other fans behind the scenes of this great webseries.

~Kenny~

© Geekyfanboy Productions

Christmas Decorations

2011-12-02T14:07:00.000-08:00

Though I'm not feeling 100% I worked on finishing putting up my Christmas decorations. I normally do outside lights but because I'm so secluded out here it's really not worth all the effort to get the lights up so instead I put a few lights up inside the house. I took a 360 picture that you can see HERE I think they turned out pretty nice. Now to finish up my Christmas shopping so I can just relax and enjoy the season.

MASH 4077 Podcast Episode 21

2011-12-01T10:33:00.001-08:00

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 1, Episode #21 - Sticky Wicket
Directed by Don Weis
Written by Richard Baer
Production code J321
Original air date March 4, 1973

Set during the Korean War in the 1950’s

Plot Summary: The episode opens in a poker game. When it's interrupted by surgery, Hawkeye and Margaret operate on a patient and the former insults Frank. However, Hawkeye's patient fails to improve after surgery. Hawkeye becomes overly concerned with the case, to the point of attacking Frank over comments at lunch, falling asleep in Post-Op, snapping at Trapper for playing poker too loudly, and moving out of the Swamp to the supply tent. While Hawkeye retreats to the Supply Tent to reflect on the case, he is interrupted by his date (whom he turns away), Trapper (whom he turns away as well), two other soldiers, and Henry. Henry implies that Hawkeye is concerned more about his ego than about his patient. Hawkeye returns with a glib remark about Henry's intelligence, which ultimately insults Henry and allows Hawkeye some peace and quiet. While pondering the case outside the Supply Tent, Hawkeye encounters Margaret and she theorizes that they made a mistake in the surgery, eliciting extreme doubt from Hawkeye, who in turn insults her. During the night, Hawkeye has an epiphany and reopens the patient to find a small piece of shrapnel damage behind the sigmoid colon, at which point Frank states, "Anybody could have missed that."Hawkeye responds with a sincere "Thanks, Frank."

Hope you enjoy it,
Kenny, Meds & Al

Hugo - Movie Review

2011-11-30T23:54:00.000-08:00

Tonight I went to a screening of Martin Scorsese HUGO at the Paramount Studios. First of all this is where I saw Tin Tin a few weeks ago and it by far the nicest "screening" room I've ever been to and I've been to quite a few. Like Tin Tin this was also presented in 3D. I really didn't know much about this movie other then it was directed by Martin Scorsese and it was about a boy and there was some sort of robot involved but that was about it.

Here's a short synopsis: Set in 1930s Paris, an orphan who lives in the walls of a train station is wrapped up in a mystery involving his late father and an automaton.

First let me say that this movie is visual stunning, the 3D like with Tin Tin wasn't gimmicky. It was beautifully done. The acting was superb, especially the lead boy who carries the entire movie. The writing and story was very sweet and kind of whimsical. The pacing is slow, not in a negative, omg when are they going to get thing rolling kind of way, but the movie is built that way. It's not a fast pace, action packed film. It moves at it's own pace, which is slow. There is drama, comedy and whimsy. It's a good family movie, though young kids might have a hard time sitting still. It's not a movie I could watch over and over again but defiantly once in awhile and it's worth watching at least once.

I would give Hugo a 7 out of 10.

Being Sick, Shopping and Movies

2011-11-30T16:22:00.000-08:00

Today I woke up not feeling so hot. Sore throat, stuff nose, a little bit of a cough and just over all blah.. Not sure if I'm getting sick or it's my allergies acting up because of all the wind. Regardless of what it is I had to do some Christmas shopping today. My buddy Aaron is hanging with me for the day so we got up, ate some breakfast and headed out for shopping. I wanted to drive to the Burbank area as there is a store out there that I wanted to check out. So we hit Target, then Michael's and then had some lunch at Panda Express before heading to the mall to go to the store that was the reason I came down to Burbank in the first place and the store is no longer there :( So I pretty much drove down here for nothing as I could have gone to Target and Michael's up near my place. Well I wasn't feeling so hot so we called it a day for shopping and headed home.

I stopped by the mail box and saw that I got 2 more screeners, blu ray versions of Rango and Super 8 and then Fedex dropped off The Ides of March.

Aaron and I were going to a screening of Hugo tonight but had a few hours to kill so we opted to watch Rango. If you never heard of Rango it stars Johnny Depp as Rango, who is a sheltered chameleon living as an ordinary family pet, while facing a major identity crisis. After all, how high can you aim when your whole purpose in life is to blend in? When Rango accidentally winds up in the gritty, gun-slinging town of Dirt - a lawless outpost populated by the desert's most wily and whimsical creatures - the less-than-courageous lizard suddenly finds he stands out. Welcomed as the last hope the town has been waiting for, new Sheriff Rango is forced to play his new role to the hilt.

I have to say that it was an enjoyable movie.. not my favorite animated film but it was entertaining. The voices were cool, couldn't even tell that was Johnny Depp. I enjoyed the animation and it had an overall good story. A few of the characters were endearing but many of them I really didn't care for. I'm contributing that to why I though it was just okay. Maybe there were to many characters and I couldn't keep track of them all. I'm glad I saw it but glad I didn't buy it.

When Rango was over we headed out to Paramount for the screening of Hugo, which I will blog a review next.

Christmas is Coming

2011-11-29T23:59:00.000-08:00

Today I finally got around to cleaning up my house after the three day Thanksgiving / Lord of the Rings Movie Marathon. Tired to do some of it yesterday but really was not very motivated as I think I was still recovering from the parties. But I wanted to start to decorate my house and put up my Christmas Tree, as I normally do it the day after Thanksgiving.

So I did the million dishes, swept and cleaned the floors and did various other little things to get my house back in order. Once that was done I pulled out all my Christmas plastic bins and carried my six foot Christmas Tree into the house.

I've always had "live" trees for as long as I remember and when I moved out onto my own I continued to buy "live" trees.. but last year I purchased a "fake" tree as I was getting tired of the hassle of caring of a "live" tree and watching die slowly and the mess it left behind. Also "fake" trees have come a long way and look 100% real. And of course me being me I didn't want to take the tree apart after last Christmas so Harry and I just carried the entire thing to the garage where's it's been since. So for one person to carry this assembled tree was a challenge. But I did it and it looks fantastic. I did the garland around the fireplace before my buddy Aaron come over around 11pm. He and I are going shopping tomorrow and to a screening of Hugh. So I called it a night on decoration.. still have a few thing to put up. I love Christmas time and this will be the first time in eight years that I'll be spending Christmas alone. And before you say anything yes I have wonderful friends and family and I will not be "alone" but I meant single which will be a change from previous years.

When I am finished with the decorations I'll post pixs up on Facebook and I'm sure I'll blog about it.

Marriage Equality For All

2011-11-28T18:26:00.000-08:00

My buddy Ken facebooked me this video a few days ago and I haven't been able to stop watching it. It uses no words but has a powerful message and makes me cry every time I watch. I think this is every persons dream (gay and straight).. at least it's mine. Maybe one day it will become a reality.

Thanksgiving / Lord of the Rings Movie Marathon Day 3

2011-11-27T23:56:00.000-08:00

Okay I think it's finally starting to catch up with me. I got up around 8ish and everyone was up already. Had a bit of a head ache so I took so ibuprofen. Ashphord asked if I minded if she made french toast for breakfast and of course I said no go for it. So that's what she did. The others helped me re-organize my house and put back everything into it's place. Also I found all but one of those missing quarters from the disaster game from last night.

We all had some yummy french toast for breakfast and then headed outside to play extreme bocce ball with the new set that Chris had purchased for me yesterday. After boccie ball we decided that we would go for a hike at Vasquez Rock (also becoming a movie marathon tradition). Both Ashphord and Anthony had never been to Vasquez Rocks so it's always exciting to take new people to one of the most beautiful places around. Luis hiked with us for about a half hour before having to head back home so we said our goodbyes and Me, Chris, Jes, Aaron, Ashphord and Anthony continued deeper into the park. Chris or as we were calling him Smegal was guiding us (though he had never been to this section before either). Soon we were far from the car and had a huge rock/mountain blocking us from getting back. So we trekked on and on as our water supply depleted. Chris had a plan and we just had to follow. But as it was pointed out.. look what happen to Sam and Frodo when they followed Smegal. But in the end the wonderful Chris found a way down the mountain side and back to our car. We hiked for something like 2 1/2 hours. It was crazy fun and I got to see parts of this park that I had never seen before.

After the hike I wanted to thank them all for staying all three days and making it a fantastic weekend so I treated everyone to lunch at Islands restaurant.

Once we were back from Islands we had to say our goodbyes to Jes and Chris, who both had long drives back up north.. Chris is 3 hours, Jes has 7 hours. Anthony and Ashphord took naps and Aaron and I just kicked back and watched some Simpsons. Ashphord joined us for a bit then Aaron had to head back south to San Diego area. Anthony finally woke up and when he first go here he was wearing his Ravenclaw robes so I told him we had to get a picture of us dueling.. me in my Gryffindor robes and he in his Ravenclaw and that is what we did. Ashphord took about ten pictures of us dueling... yep I'm a big ol' geek. Going to enhance the photos and will be posting them soon. After that we said our goodbyes and the 3 days Thanksgiving / Lord of the Rings marathon has come to an end.

It's always sad when the last person leaves, as I am all alone again but man what a blast these past three days have been. Thanks to all of those to joined me - Scott, Leslie, Jes, Nicki, Anthony, Ashphord, Leo, Jennifer and Matthew. And I really want to thank Luis, Chris, Jen, Anne and Aaron who have joined me for all three of my movie marathons so far. You guys are the core group of this movie marathon posse and I don't even have the words to tell you how much I appreciate, love and adore each and everyone of you.

You can check out more pictures HERE

Thanksgiving / Lord of the Rings Movie Marathon Day 2

2011-11-26T23:59:00.000-08:00

Once again like yesterday I woke up early and surprising not too hung over from the night before. I got up around 8ish and folks were still sleeping. I took a shower and by the time I got ready most of the folk were up and about. I made breakfast for everyone, eggs, potatoes, bacon, sausage and oj. While we ate breakfast we watched Galaxy Quest (several in our party had not seen it) and it's become a movie marathon tradition. After the movie and breakfast Leslie had to take off leaving us with 12 party goers.

After the movie everyone got in a quick game of extreme bocce ball. Leo was not feeling so hot so he left leaving us with 11 folks - Me, Jes, Chris, Scott, Aaron, Anthony, Ashphord, Luis, Anne, Nicki and Jen.

We finally sat down to start Lord of the Rings The Two Towers Extended Edition. Again we did the drinking game but since it was early and most of use didn't want to start drinking until later, we would just all yell out "Ring" or "Precious" and not really drink or drink soda or water. At the halfway point we took a break to prepare lunch (BBQ). Jen and Chris headed out to pick up some supplies. Jes BBQ burgers and hot dogs. During this time two more joined us Jennifer and her husband Matthew. I showed them around the house as folks ate lunch. Jen and Chris returned from "shopping" and Chris had a surprise for me. He purchased a set of bocce balls for me. So we now have our own set that we can play anytime.

We started back with The Two Towers second disc. Once that was done we took a break and folks started drinking again. When we started Lord of the Rings The Return of the King Extended Edition the drinking game was back on. Again like before this movie is on two disc so when disc one was over we stopped and took a breather before starting up disc two.

Return of the King finished around 9:30pm and our Lord of the Rings movie marathon was over.. but the party was far from it. We said our good byes to Jen, Anne, Nicki, Jennifer and Matthew. Leaving 7 to party on - Me, Scott, Chris, Ashphord, Anthony, Jes and Luis.

Now the drinking games began. We first did a few round of beer pong, we played teams and it was a blast but at this time it was 11pm and even though I live in a more secluded area I still have neighbors so we moved the party inside and started to play quarters. Well that quickly became a disaster as quarter were flying everyone and I think we started with 14 quarters and ended up with four or five. I'm sure as I cleaning I'm going to be finding those missing quarters. So in the end Chris mentioned a drinking card game called Asshole. And from about midnight to 3am we played Asshole and had a blast. Scott had left about halfway through the games so that left six of use but we played and played until none of us could keep our eyes open. I think Ashphord actually passed out about a half hour before we finished playing.

So the second day comes to an end. Once again I was nice and drunk. Got to play lots of fun games. Got to finally hang out with Jennifer and her husband Matthew. Watched several great movies. Made some very cool memories that I will never forget. Got even closer to this group of people that I just adore and love to dead.. couldn't have asked for a better two days.. and the best thing is we still have one more to go.

You can check out more pictures HERE

Thanksgiving / Lord of the Rings Movie Marathon Day 1

2011-11-25T23:59:00.000-08:00

Today started early.. got up around 6:30am, was just too excited to sleep. I think I finally got out of bed around 8am and both Jes and Chris were just getting up. We finished up things around the house. Chris ran to the store to pick up some last minute supplies. Once he was back he and Jes started to make deviled eggs while I cleaned up a bit. Chris and I then moved my big TV to the dining room and proceeded to set up my surround sound (which I normally don't have hooked up). We relaxed a bit and around 10:30am Chris and I started to prep the Turkey. It was a 23 pounder, largest turkey that I have ever cooked. It must have been pretty funny for Jes watching Chris and I butter the turkey and prepare it, we make a good team. But by 11am it was ready to go and into the oven it went for five hours.

At this time Aaron, Anthony and Ashphord showed up then Leslie, Nicki and Anne. It was now noon and folks were pretty much just chatting, snacking and we decided to watch Elf. After the movie, Leo showed up with his bocce ball set and the guys wanted to go out and play so the ladies stayed inside and watched Never Been Kiss. More guests arrived Luis, Scott and Jen.

So our party was up to 13 - Me, Chris, Scott, Leslie, Jen, Jes, Anne, Nicki, Aaron, Anthony, Ashphord, Leo and Luis.

Once the movie and bocce ball or as I like to call it extreme bocce ball games were over everyone headed in as it was time for dinner (4pm).

I had come in a little earlier to finish prepping all the side for dinner. Folks brought cranberry sauce, mash potatoes, stuffing, green bean casserole, rolls, and at the request of Chris I made mac and cheese and Ashphord made collard greens. Chris and I carved the turkey and dinner was ready.

Everyone grabbed a plate and attacked the food. As we started our dinner we started to watch Lord of the Rings The Fellowship of the Rings Extended Edition. Chris started a drinking game and every time we heard "Ring" or "Precious" we had to drink. (he later came to regret starting this game :) ) At the halfway point (these movies are on two discs) we took about a half hour break and checked out the stars on my back porch.

Once we finished FOTR my buddy Chris had brought his beer pong table and set it up to play some games. I actually played my first ever game of beer pong and beat my friend Chris... it was pretty fun. We took lots of fun pictures (some that will never see the light of day), we started a massage train, did shots, laughed alot, watched Chris walk around in his crushed velvet royal purple blanket... good times were had. Around midnight/1am we called it a night.. I think between drinking all day and the food coma we couldn't keep our eyes open.

So the first day has come to an end. It was pretty awesome. I wanted to give those who didn't have family to celebrate Thanksgiving with a family (of friends) to celebrate with and I think it was a success. I got drunk and had a blast... Fellowship of the Rings is my favorite of the 3 movies so that made it even more special and my friend Jes made actual Lembas bread with fabricated leaves.. these were EPIC!!!

But for me the best part of the day and this weekend is spending time with the people I care about most. This group of friends is unlike any other group of friends that I have every had. And I am so Thankful for each and everyone of them.

You can check out more pictures HERE

Happy Thanksgiving

2011-11-24T22:59:00.000-08:00

Today I headed out to my Mom's for Thanksgiving. Joining my dad, brother, sister-in-law, nephew, aunt, uncle, cousins and grandmother. She lives down in Newport (Balboa Island) so it's a nice trek to get down there. It's always nice hanging out with family. Of course I don't get to see them as much as I would like so when I can it's always special. Had a great Turkey dinner and spent about six hours with them.

Afterwards my buddies Jes and Chris traveled down from northern California for my Thanksgiving / Lord of the Rings movie marathon starting tomorrow. Since the live so far away they traveled down a day earlier and stayed with me. So around 8:30 they showed up and we hung out for a few hours visiting before heading to bed. I'm so excited for this upcoming three day event!!

Planning my Trip to the UK

2011-11-22T20:41:00.000-08:00

So I put a call out to all my England and Ireland friends out there in the twitter and facebook world asking if anyone had a couch that I could crash on for a few days while on my 3 week vacation to the UK. My plan is to spend the first two weeks in England and then fly over to Ireland for my remaining week.

I got a few friends offering up couches and spare rooms and I pretty much have mid to southern England covered. Still looking for a place to stay in Scotland. Of course I'm not opposed to a hotel. But since I'm currently jobless and living off of unemployment and savings I'm trying to keep costs down. That brings me to another question that I put out there to all my Twitter and Facebook followers... should I be taking this trip since I'm jobless. I got about 27 "Got for it!!" and 2 "Stupid idea". Many of them said.. "you only live once". I've never traveled outside the US, I've always been busy with work or other circumstances kept me from traveling. I'm now 41, single and not working. This is the perfect time to travel. I'm tired of being responsible all the time. I've been responsible for as long as I can remember. I want to fulfill a dream of mine and travel to England/Ireland and then eventually to Europe (2013 I hope). I'm not an idiot, I have savings and won't let my mortgage fall. But if I can set aside a few thousand for this trip, I'm going to do it. I may struggle a bit when I get back financially but I'm resourceful and will find a job and earn some money. I'm still hopeful to find a job in January and work until May.. that would be ideal.

I plan on renting a car and driving myself around the country.. figured it would be cheaper then taking trains/buses and such. Also it allows me to travel at my leisure. I'm a bit worried about driving on the wrong side of the road but if I can handle Los Angeles traffic I can handle anything. I checked prices and they aren't too bad. To rent a car in England for two weeks it will cost me 212.16 pounds which is currently $340 dollars. Which isn't bad in my opinion. I would of course have to rent another car in Ireland and figure it would cost about half that for one week. so total car rental is about $500, current plane tickets are about $800 so that's $1300, leaving me $700 for food, gas, hotel (if needed) and spending money. It will be tight but if I plan things out well I can make it stretch.

I hope to book my plane ticket in early December then I can start actually planning the trip. Who I'm staying with, for how long, what I want do while there.. you know all the fun stuff.

I'm extremely excited to actually be doing this. It's awesome to actually fulfill one of your life's dream

Blue markers are where friends live and offer my places to stay.

Parties & Podcasts

2011-11-21T23:14:00.000-08:00

It's funny, I have a love hate relationship with my podcasts. I love doing them but sometimes I hate editing them. Well today was a good day. I got up and was full of energy. I rearrange all my furniture for my upcoming Thanksgiving / Lord of the Rings movie marathon. Since I have about 20 folks coming my TV room is too small to accommodate for everyone so I moved my dining table against the wall and rearrange all my chairs and couches to face the front door where I'll be moving my TV. I did it this way for my Star Wars Marathon and it seemed to go over petty well.

After that I cleaned the kitchen and guest room but still had my master bedroom and master bath but instead I was motivated to edit the next MASH 4077 Podcast which isn't due to be released until Dec. 1st. Now if you follow my blog you know I have struggled with the last two MASH podcasts and edited them on the actual day they were due to be released. So when I got the urge I dropped everything and jumped on them. I actually got it completely done and even started the next Confessions of a Fangirl podcast. Still have to finish that and do a Knights of the Guild podcast before the 1st of December. And I'm waiting for my brother to record our first Alien Nation podcasts. His wife is about to give birth to their daughter (my niece) any day now so he wants to be close and I don't blame him. I live about an hour and a half way from him. She's due any day now so once she has the baby will be able to take a few hours and record a few episodes. I still hope to get the first episode out sometime in December.

My Dream House

2011-11-20T11:26:00.000-08:00

I came across this article yesterday and was just amazed by this house. I've seen other houses done in the "hobbit" style but this one is by far the best looking and my favorite. This is truly my dream house. I would totally love to have a house just like this.

Not only is the house amazing but it was built for hardly no money. Of course they did all the work themselves and were carpentars but still it's an amazing looking house.

Here is the link to the original story LINK

I've attached some pixs to this blog but there are more on the site so be sure to check it out.

Captain America Review

2011-11-19T17:58:00.000-08:00

Well I know I'm late to the party but I finally got to see Captain America. I wanted to see this when it was out in the theaters but circumstances kept me from doing so. Well I got it on blu-ray today and sat down immediately to watch and I have to say I absolutely LOVED it!! Great origin story, cool special effects and some very cool action scenes. Chris Evens is perfect for the character of Steve Rogers. They spent the first 1/3 of the movie with a "smaller" Steve and showed how great a person he really is. I loved that character and how he was portrayed. I like the idea of taking someone who is a "good" person and enhancing the good to great. Maybe because I'm short and have dealt with how people treat short people that I identified so much with him. I liked the romance between Steve and Peggy.. it was sweet and genuine... though heartbreaking. Tommy Lee Jones was great as always and of course I can't blog about this movie without mentioning the awesome effects of making Chris Evens look like a 100 pound super skinny guy. I watched the 'extra' on the blu-ray on how they did this and was surprised that they used several techniques. It's a pretty amazing effect. So glad I got this on blu-ray as I can see myself watching this over and over. I was excited for The Avengers but after seeing this I am even more excited.

Visiting Family

2011-11-17T19:12:00.000-08:00

Woke up this morning and it felt like I had been hit by a bus. I was sore from head to toe. Who knew standing for 14 hours bent over a table could cause so much wear and tear on your body. I jumped into the shower and tried to sooth my aching muscles.

Today was family day. Had lunch with my Dad and got to visit with my brother, sister-in-law and nephew Kenobi. Every time to see Kenobi I feel like he ages months. He's getting so big and he now knows who I am and calls me Un.. he can't quit get it all out yet (Uncle) but he's working on it. He's adorable and I love him to death. I also got to visit my Lora my sister-in-law how is about 8 1/2 months pregnant with my niece Molly. She is so ready to get this baby out. I always enjoy my visits with the family. And it should growing by in any day now.

Time at the Barnyard

2011-11-16T23:59:00.000-08:00

Today I went to Greg Aronowitz's house aka The Barnyard. He is currently working on four different projects and needed some help. So I got up at 8am and headed over there. When I got there they were in the middle of working on stuff for Minecon which is happening in a few days in Las Vegas. The first thing I worked on was a chicken. Minecon is a convention for the game MindCraft. That world is made of little boxes (kind of like 8 bit). So of course my chicken was made up of a ton of little boxes, each needed to be painted. When I finished the chicken I moved on to three sets of chicken feet. All I had to do there was paint them yellow, which took several coats because they were made of metal.

My buddy Anthony should up which I did not expect and later in the day my buddy Chris drove down to work the next three days so he could get in to MineCon. After the chickens I moved on to human arms and those took me the rest of the day to complete. Who have thought drawing out boxes and painting them would be such hard work.

14 hours later I was exhausted, I hated leaving everyone as they had days of work left to do but my body isn't use to standing for 14 hours bend over a table painting. And though it was hard work it was alot of fun hanging out at the Barnyard.

MASH 4077 Podcast Episode 20

2011-11-15T19:30:00.001-08:00

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 1, Episode #20 - The Army-Navy Game
Directed by Gene Reynolds
Written by Sid Dorfman & McLean Stevenson
Production code J322
Original air date February 25, 1973

Set during the Korean War in the 1950’s

Plot Summary: On the day of the Army/Navy game, the unit finds itself under enemy attack. In addition to injury and some mild damage, they discover an undetonated bomb in the center of the camp. In order to defuse the bomb the characters are forced to deal with a variety of "joker"s from different branches of the military making suggestions about how to deal with the deadly missile. In a variety of scenes some of the characters act as if this is their last day on earth. Eventually the Navy calls back claiming the bomb belongs to the CIA. Hawkeye and Trapper are sent out to defuse the bomb with Henry reading instructions from a bunker. Due to a mix-up between Henry and Trapper they accidentally set off the bomb. As it turns out, all it does is fire propaganda leaflets into the air. The episode ends with Father Mulcahy winning the football pool, being the only person who bet on the Navy.

Hope you enjoy it,
Kenny, Meds & Al

PGA DVD Screeners

2011-11-15T15:18:00.000-08:00

One of the major benefits of being a member of the PGA (Producers Guild of America) is I get screeners of movies towards the end of the year for the award season. They normally start rolling in mid November and last until mid December. So far I have gotten five screeners. Warrior, The Tree of Life, The First Grader, Contagion and Cars 2. I've heard great things about Warrior but I'm not much into MMA, want to see Contagion and Cars 2 and never heard of The First Grader or The Tree of Life. I normally get about 30 screeners so I'm looking forward to seeing what I get next.

The Hunger Games Trailer

2011-11-14T21:11:00.000-08:00

So I read all three of these books and I loved book one, book two and 2/3'd of book three so I was looking forward to seeing this movie and WOW.. this trailer did not disappoint.. I even teared up on several scenes.. gonna be an AWESOME movie and hopefully trilogy.

Additions to my Harry Potter Bust Collection

2011-11-14T20:02:00.000-08:00

Stopped by the post office today and picked up a package. I knew what it was as I'm expecting only one thing. I recently won several actions on Ebay and manage to snag both Fenrir Gryback & Cedric Diggory for a good price. I'm so happy that I'm getting more and more of these.. soon I'll be able to complete the set.

Catching up on TV

2011-11-14T18:49:00.000-08:00

This morning I took Anthony home, did some errands and grabbed some lunch. When I got home I knew I needed to edit the next MASH 4077 Podcast as it's due tomorrow but instead I had hours and hours of TV that I needed to catch up on so guess which one I choose.. yeah I caught up on some TV. The big ones that I really was looking forward to watching was Once Upon A Time, Clone Wars and The Amazing Race. Amazing Race was good as always, Clone Wars was part 3 of a 4 part story about Rex and the Clone troopers and was as always excellent but the one that I loved the most was Once Upon A Time. This series continues to impress and amaze me. This time they brought in Cinderella and her dealings with Mr. Gold aka Rumpelstiltskin... so much fun.