Lack of a Valentine

So it's Valentines Day, just another reminder that I'm alone. But you know what I don't have anyone to blame but myself. It's been many years since Harry and I broke up and though I would like nothing better then to be in a relationship I'm doing nothing about it. I don't know if I'm expecting Mr. Right just to come knocking on my door but I know that's not how it works. I'm not one to pick someone up in a bar and my current group of friends that I hang out with are all straight so no help there. It's more then likely that I'm going to have to go back to online dating. I found a website called Our Time and it's online dating for the more mature people 40 +. I put up a profile and according to the website have several "flirts" and messages but of course you have to pay for the service to read and reply to the messages and I don't know how legit this service is. I don't know if I'll pay for this service or not but I do know that this is the year I stop being stupid and find me a guy who perfect for me.

Speaking of Valentines Day.. Agent Carter actors made this very cute and fun video that I want to share with you all. They are quoting romantic exchanges between couples from famous movies. I think I can name them all... can you?

Weigh-In for 2/14

Once again I weighted myself this morning after my morning job. Last Saturday I weighed in at 194.5 with a total weight lose of 24.5 pounds since October of 2014.

Today I weighed in at 195, that's a gain of a half of pound, which brings my total weight lose to 24 pounds. At first I was disappointed as I gained and did not lose weight but then was kind of happy that it was only a gain of a half of pound as I did not have a good food week last week. I also considered that it might be muscle gain since I now workout at NerdStrong Gym on a regular bases (3x a week) as well as continuing my daily morning jogs.

Still I have to stay positive, I'm well on my way to my goal weight. I know this is a process and that it's not going to happen over night, especially if I wish to keep it off. This is going to be a life long battle but I'm determined to win in the end.

Thanks to all those who tweet, Facebook message and text me their support.. it's means alot.

It's All About the Podcasts

Today was all about podcasts. I had several that were due to be released on the 15th, which is only two days away. Sometimes I love editing podcasts and can get through three in one day but other times it's a struggle and I just procrastinate and have to force myself into doing it... this is one of those times.

The first one I must get done is my guest spot on Treks in Sci Fi Podcast. The host Rico and I did a podcast on the second of the Harry Potter books/movies Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. We recorded this a few weeks ago but I waited until the last minute to edit it. Though I did start editing last week but only got about 1/3 of it done.

I don't know why I lack motivation sometimes when it comes to editing podcast as I love creating, producing and hosting podcasts. The upside is once I convince myself to start editing I really get into it and then I'm an editing fanatic... that's what happen today.

I spent a good part of today (about six hours) editing the rest of the Harry Potter podcast and then moved on to my MASH 4077 Podcast and completed the next episode or what I thought was the next episode.. come to find out that I already edited the next podcast (due on 2/15), so I actually finished editing the following podcast for 3/1 and got about halfway done with the episode for 3/15. Talk about being ahead of the game... woot!!

I sent the Potter podcast to Rico and it should be posted on Treks in Sci Fi this coming Sunday 2/15, I'll be sure to post about it here.

NerdStrong Gym - It's All About the Kettlebells

Today session had a "guest" coach Christy. We started with barbell row. I teamed up with fellow noob Ben and we learned how to do barbell rows properly. We did those for about 15 minutes before starting bench presses. I love doing bench presses as I already have a large chest (barrel chested) so when I get any chance to enhance it, I take it. Again it was Ben and I so we took turns doing several reps within our 15 minute allotment.

After the barbell stuff the real workout began. Today's crossfit workout consisted of 3 rounds of 20x kettlebell ballistic rows, 12x kettlebell goblet squats and then :30 seconds of kettlebell high pulls.

As with all the crossfit stuff, I start off great, feeling good and pushing myself. About half way through the rounds I start to feel the burn. While my arms are burning I'm trying to concentrate on form instead of speed. Yes we are working against a clock (12 minutes) but form matters. That last :30 second kettlebell high pull almost killed me but I am happy to say that I finished with a few minutes to spare.

Another great workout, thank you Christy for your awesome coaching. I'm gonna be sore tomorrow :)

Goodbye Red Band Society

Today I watched the final two episodes of Red Band Society. Yes I said the final two episodes as this series has ended (though it's not officially cancelled by Fox.. it will be). So it was kind of bitter sweet knowing that this would be the final two episode of this series. What is worse is that the series production was halted after the midseason finale. So they didn't get to do an official wrap up to the series and characters. So I'm when I started watching these I was worried that it would end on some horrible cliffhanger that would never be resolved.

Well I started with S1 Ep 12 "We'll Always Have Paris" As Kara is undergoing a heart transplant in real-life, she finds herself in the in-between world with Hunter. After their time together, Kara doesn't want to leave Hunter, but he gives her a speech on the importance of life, after which she wakes up from surgery. A temporary patient named Mae shows up at the hospital, putting Dash on alert. They had started an online relationship on a cystic fibrosis forum, but he avoids her as their conditions don't allow them to be actually be together. Charlie is regaining his motor skills and Dr. Naday has him playing video games. Meanwhile, Jordi's grandmother Alma has taken a disliking to Dr. McAndrew while he's still trying to get her to sign off on the surgery. However, Jordi later tells Dr. Andrew that he doesn't want it anymore, no longer believing that he can get better. At the end he does agree to the surgery but before he goes under, Jordi decides to give Leo, who has been depressed and silent since he got the news about his cancer, a pep talk and is the one that's finally able to get through to him about continuing to fight their battles.

I have never been a big Kara fan as she is such a horrible person. But over the season we have gotten to see a 'softer' side of her and with this episode we got to see a bit more. What I do like about Kara is that she knows she's a bitch and a horrible person and sometimes feels bad about it. It was good to see her and Hunter being together as if nothing was wrong in the world. They did make a cute couple. She loved him as she was willing to die to be with him. Again like with Kara I was not a fan of Dash but as with Kira we got to see a different side to him in this episode. He's not always the player and actually has a big heart and cares for his friends. I didn't care much for the Jordi storyline and his religious grandmother but it wasn't horrible. Overall I enjoyed this episode my only complaint is that is didn't have enough Octavia Spencer (Nurse Jackson) in it, she's my favorite character. Time to move on to the finale.

The final episode of the series which was S1 Ep 13 "Waiting for Superman" Dash and Mae sneak off to be together, but are caught by Kenji and Brittany, who end up employing security guards to keep them apart. Emma's parents are visiting for a family therapy session. After a failed trust fall exercise and an argument with Emma in the bathroom, Emma's mother almost leaves the hospital until Brittany has a talk with her in the elevator. It is only her mother returns that Emma is able to have a deep conversation with her. Charlie is now able to move about in a wheelchair and Nurse Jackson thanks Dr. Naday for everything before he jets off to meet with his next patient. Meanwhile, Leo is pessimistic about beating cancer for a second time and it's hard for him to have been the one to hold everyone up, until Mae tells him that he doesn't always have to be invincible like Superman. The "red band society," including Charlie, reunite on the roof one last time and start singing You Can't Always Get What You Want, which results in Charlie speaking for the first time since the coma. Later that night, he is discharged from Ocean Park. The series ends with Dr. McAndrew and Nurse Jackson acknowledging that the hardest part of their occupations is knowing that everyone eventually leaves, though they themselves will always remain.

I enjoyed this episode more then the one before it as it focused more on the characters that I like. And this being a mid season finale we actually got some nice character story end points. Starting with Emma and her family. By the end she and her mom have this huge break through which can only be good news for her anorexia. More character growth for Dash as he realized that he cares for Mae and can't put her in danger by continuing their relationship. Charlie is up and about (with the help of a wheelchair) and at the end talk before being sent home. Kara still being a bitch, I was hoping for a bit more change after receiving Hunters heart. But there was a nice moment between Kara and Emma. We got to see a bit more of Nurse Jackson and how she deals with all the stress of her job. Leo has his ups and downs but end the series on a up and being accepting into an experimental drug test (his last hope of beating cancer). And Jordi decides that he is going through with the operation with his grandmother's consistent.

Overall a nice ending to the series, yes we are left with a few minor cliffhangers and we really only got the resolution of one of the characters (Charlie). But it was still a decent ending to what was one of my favorite new TV series this season. I'm sad to see it go as it had so much potential but I'm happy that we got to see 13 wonderful episodes.

Worldwide Gay Marriage & the Latest Gotham

I found a cool "World" map marking which countries allow gay marriage, which allows partial gay marriage and those that it's illegal. I was surprised I actually thought more of Europe was open to gay marriage. And soon enough the US will be fully purple as well.

Today I came across a Big Bang Theory from last season that I had never seen. I don't know how it happen as I was sure I had recorded every episode, but somehow I missed this one... It was S7 Ep13 The Occupation Recalibration. I had always wondered when Penny quit the Cheescake Factory... now I know.

Watched some TV in the evening with my buddy Erik. We started with FaceOff, which is always alot of fun. And then Gotham, S1 Ep 15 "The Scarecrow" When Gerald Crane targets another victim, James Gordon and Harvey Bullock investigate his background and discover that he was a biology teacher whose wife died in a fire accident that he was too scared to rescue her from. Bruce Wayne goes on a treacherous hike. Falcone tells Cobblepot to renovate Fish's nightclub as his own before speaking to Maroni about him - Maroni agrees to let Cobblepot live in exchange for having a judge placed in his pocket. Crane injects his son with a large dose and does permanent damage to him causing him to be in fear all the time.

Another really good episode, I actually enjoyed all the various storylines. It was really fun to see Enigma (The Riddler) and Penguin meet for the first time. Penguin has always been my favorite character but Enigma is starting to become my new favorite. I really thought that Bruce would encounter the bats in his travels but that didn't happen. The birth of Scarecrow was really well done and I like the flirting going on between Gordan and Dr. Thompkins.

Agent Carter S1 Ep6 - My Thoughts

Tonight I watched the latest episode of Marvel's Agent Carter. S1 Ep6 "A Sin to Err" Carter and Jarvis investigate the women that Stark has been involved with over the last six months, believing that a female Leviathan operative may have been used against Stark and to kill Krzeminski, but their search is unsuccessful. Sousa reveals to Dooley that Carter is an apparent traitor, and all agents are tasked with tracking her down. They eventually corner her and Jarvis, but Carter fights them off. During the commotion, Dr. Ivchenko, who is actually working for Leviathan, hypnotizes Agent Yauch, who reveals that only Dooley can access Stark's weapons. Yauch shows Ivchenko how to get out of the S.S.R., before Ivchenko forces him to commit suicide. Carter retrieves Rogers' blood from her apartment. As she tries to escape the building, she is knocked out by Underwood, but not before realizing that Underwood is the Leviathan operative. Underwood is about to kill Carter when Thompson and Sousa arrive. She feigns ignorance, and the agents arrest Carter.

This series continues to impress and tonight's episode was no different. We knew this was coming, we knew they would find out about Peggy helping Stark but it doesn't mean I have to like it. I was disappointed in Sousa. I was hoping he would approach Peggy privately and ask her what is going on. She then could have explained everything and brought him into their little circle. But I understand that this is not where the story is going. Though Sousa did turn Peggy in he at least did the right thing by letting her go when he had her at gun point. I loved that she decked Thompson (so deserved).

I was so happy to see Jarvis team back up with Peggy as I have mentioned I really love their chemistry. Jarvis' face of joy while he was helping fight off the Agents with Peggy was priceless. Angie got to shine in this episode. She didn't question Peggy on why people were after her she just wanted to help her friend... I love that about her character.

And of course though Peggy was capture by the SSR at the end it was a good thing as Dottie was about to kill her. So they in essence saved her life.

This was a very tense and hard to watch episode because we know Peggy is in the right but all her misogynistic co-workers are clueless and you just want them to listen to her. Next weeks episode looks interesting. I wonder how hard Sousa is going to integrate her. We know Thompson likes to use his fists.

Only two episode left. I'll be sad when this series is gone but when it goes Agents of SHIELD will be back to fill the hole.

NerdStrong Gym - It's All About the Dumbbells

Another fun but exhausting work out at NerdStrong Gym. We always start with a warm up, this time we did jump rope. I use to jump rope all the time when I was younger but man trying to do three minutes now was like torture.

After the warm up we learn the correct way to do several workouts. This time we learned the correct way to do Box Jumps and Pull Ups. I got box jumps down pretty good.. I even advanced to the 20 inch box. The pull ups on the other hand were alot tougher. I could manage to pull myself up once but that was it so Andrew had me jump and hold myself up at the bar and then slowly lower myself which puts huge amount of strain on your muscles. I manged to do about eight of those.

After all that it's time for our circuit workout. Today it was all about Dumbbells. We had to do 5 rounds of 12x Dumbbells Lunges, 12x Dumbbell Renegade Rows & 6x Dumbbells Push Ups. We had twelve minutes to complete all five rounds. I am happy to say that I finished second in our group with a few minutes to spare. It was an extremely good upper body workout.

Afterwards as the 7:30 session got going my buddy Joey started setting up a bench and planned to do some bench presses. I really enjoy bench presses so I asked if I could join him. We did six sets of six at about 115 lbs. My arms were dead by the time we finished but it was a very enjoyable workout.

Spider-man Returns to Marvel

So big geek news Sony and Marvel made a joint announcement today, Spider-man will be joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The reason this is such a huge thing is that Sony owns the rights to the Cinematic version of Spider-man, they acquired them years before Marvel that is, ever came to be.

Spider-man has been such a huge part of the Marvel universe for over 50 years and we had heard rumors that this might be happening but with two very large companies there is a lot of red tape.

We don't know all the details, all we know at this moment is that Spider-man will show up in one of the already announced Marvel titles, rumor has it that it's going to be in Captain America: Civil War since his character did play a big part in the comic books. After his appearance in one of the Marvel movies there will be another stand alone Spider-man movie.

Whats crazy is this will be the third time they have re-booted Spider-man as neither Tobey Maguire nor Andrew Garfield will be reprising the role of Peter Parker / Spider-man.

They also announced that they are working on getting some Marvel Cinematic characters in the next Spider-man movie.. so it looks like the two companies are gonna play nice and will be getting a lot of crossover.

Now if Fox would do the same for Fantastic Four and The X-Men life would be grand.

Call the Midwife & Rebels - Latest Episodes

After the workout a group of us went out for a late breakfast/early lunch at a local diner. I'm just getting to know these folks so it was nice to get out of the gym and just hang for a few hours.

I watched two shows today that I want to do a quick review on.. first one is Call the Midwife S4 Ep4, After an encounter with a young prostitute who is both pregnant and infected with syphilis, Sister Winifred attempts to spread the message of safe sex among the prostitutes of the neighborhood. Barbara deals with a man who is so desperate to have a son to inherit the family business that he will accept no other outcome for his wife's pregnancy. Sister Monica Joan finds a new sense of purpose when she is unexpectedly forced to assist with a birth. Trixie begins to doubt that she will ever be suited to life as a clergyman's wife, and after learning that Tom's first appointment as a vicar may be in a deprived inner-city area of Newcastle rather than the rural parish she had hoped for, she breaks off their engagement.

I enjoyed this episode, lots of character building especially for Trixie. She is confronted with her "drinking" problem which almost lead to a crisis and her getting cold feet for her upcoming wedding. Her future isn't looking to bright at the moment. I was shocked at that dad who wanted nothing to do with his daughter as he wanted nothing but a son. Luckily he came around but still, it made me sick to think that he'd turn his back on his newborn because of her sex. I really didn't care for Sister Winifred and prostitutes storyline. I mean it was okay but it could have been removed from the story and I'd be okay with that. I did like the Sister Monica Joan story but it felt like a repeat. I feel like every season she is questioning her usefulness but I did like the end result in this one. Next week it looks like Cynthia is back.. I can't wait. I hope we see Chummy again this season as well.

The other show I watched was Star Wars Rebels S1 Ep11 "Call to Action", When the rebels want to broadcast a message to the nearby star systems about their cause, Kanan decides to invade a Communications Tower. They think they have the element of surprise, but they were wrong... Governor Tarkin has come to Lothal and has deduced where they will strike. After Commandant Aresko and Taskmaster Grint are executed by the Inquisitor, Governor Tarkin sends the Inquisitor out to capture Kanan alive to earn back his trust. When the Imperial forces attack the group at the tower, Kanan instructs the team to leave him and thus is captured. The team is able to send a message before Tarkin orders the tower to be destroyed to end their broadcast.

I really enjoyed this episode. I like this series but it still hasn't hooked me like The Clone Wars did. I enjoy the characters and the stories but there is something about it that makes it not quite as awesome and I don't know what it is. This weeks episode was a favorite of mine. It was good to see Tarkin again and it felt like the sakes were alot higher with this episode. I actually thought they might kill off one of the main characters but of course they wouldn't do that with this series. This is the first episode that ended in a cliffhanger. Maybe that's what it is, with The Clone Wars there were very few stand alone episodes, most were two, three and even four episode story arches which of course gave the story time to breath. Maybe that is what Rebels is missing. All I know is weekly Star Wars is awesome.. even at subpar it's better then 90% of the stuff out there in TV land and I will continue to love it.

The Indy Workout - NerdStrong Gym

Today I did my first Sunday workout at NerdStrong Gym. Sunday workouts are different from other workouts as they are themed and you usually work in teams. They are also known for being the toughest workouts. But before I get to the workout, let's chat about the warm up. I got the gym about 20 minutes early so the 9am group was still working out. Let me say that it's not a great idea to watch what "hell" you're about to go through. Watching these poor people sweat and huff & puff and be exhausted was hard because you know this is going to be you in about a half hour or so.

Luckily we were distracted by Marla (the other trainer) and began our warm up since the class before was running long. We did some lunges, high steps, butt kicks and various other things. We then did two laps around the parking lot but this wasn't your usual run it's something called an Indian Run. I had never heard of this but here is what it is. An indian run is when a team jogs in a single file line around a playing a field (or in our case the parking lot). It begins when the last person in line sprints to the front. When that person gets there, the next person at the end of the line sprints to the front of the line. This continues as the line jogs around the parking lot.

It's exhausting.. I was so tired and the actual workout hadn't even begun yet. Once the class before us was done with started our session. First up was learning how to row properly. So we all did a few minutes on the row machines. We didn't have time to do the "team row" event so we skipped to the main event. As I mentioned before Sunday workouts are themed and this one was titled "Indy" as in Indiana Jones. For this workout you had 12 minutes to complete 5 rounds of 5x Burpee, 10x Box Jump, 15x Cowbell Swing & 20x Situps or you could get smooshed by a boulder. If you didn't think you could complete this workout you had two alternates, less reps per event but still 5 rounds or you could do 4 rounds but full reps. I chose to try and do 4 rounds at full reps and if I had time I'd push to do the 5th round.

So we were all teamed with a partner and we started. My partner Katie went first and did a great job. she opted for the same workout as me and did 4 rounds of the full reps. When it came to my turn the first few rounds were fine but on my third during the sit ups I started to feel it. I managed to get through most of my fourth round but again when it came to sit ups I struggled and on number 14 and with a minute left I couldn't continue. It's strange when your mind is telling your body to do something and your body is literally ignoring it. I pulled myself up a few more times but barely and managed to only do 16 or the 20 required sit ups.

This meant I got squished by a boulder and was penalized with 30x Wallball (which is taking a medicine ball and throwing it up against the wall and hitting a certain mark 30 times). Andrew said that I didn't have to do it since it was my first Sunday but Marla (the other trainer) was having none of that and made me do 30 squats instead :-)

Overall it was another fantastic workout. I'm really enjoying the NerdStrong Gym, the trainers/coaches are great. The fellow workout buddies are nice, encouraging and helpful and it's fun being surrounded by fellow geeks/nerds. If you want to check out the place you can do your one on one and first workout for free. You can check out their website and set up an appointment HERE.

Weigh-In for 2/7

So I decided that I'm going to start weighing myself ever Saturday after my jog and blog about it. I still struggling with my eating habits and I hope by publicly announcing my weight every Saturday that this will somehow make me more conscience of what I am eating. But with that said I also need to take into account my workouts with Nerdstrong. I will be gaining muscle which of course weighs more then fat so I may lose very little weight or even gain because of this. I can't let the weight gain discourage me as long as I see the different in my appearance.

The last time I weighed myself I was 197.5 (1/24/15) and this morning I came in at 194.5. I'm continuing my downward momentum. I'm currently down 24.5 pounds since October 2014. Let's hope the trend continue with my next weigh in on Saturday. Wish me luck!!

LARPs The Series - A New Webseries

I found new webseries that I really enjoyed.. it's called LARPs The Series, I saw the "pilot" episode 0 a few weeks back and though it had potential but then I got sidetracked and it fell off my radar. Until today when I saw a tweet about a new episode and check it out again.. they are already on episode 3 so I had the pleasure of watching episode 0 again along with episodes 1, 2 and 3.

Wait a minute I'm getting ahead of myself.. maybe some of you don't know what LARPing is.. well here's a quick description of what it is and what the series is about. In a LARP, or live action-roleplaying game, players assume the identity of their chosen character and physically perform their actions (as opposed to simply describing them as in D&D). LARPs: The Series follows a group of friends and their journey through both their imaginary and real lives.

This series is being released on Felicia Day's Geek and Sundry channel on YouTube. And new episodes come out every Friday.

There's only been a few episodes but here are my thoughts on those episodes. Let's start with the techie stuff.. the way it's shot is fantastic, I don't know what camera they are using but man does it look good. The costume look great and the weapons are fantastic. I'm enjoying the characters for the most part and the story has been good so far. I mean each episode is only 5 minutes long so we've seen just over 15 minutes of this series. That would be my one and only complaint, that the episodes are to short I want to see more.

This series gives me the same vibe that The Guild did when I first watched it. Only time will tell if this series will hold a place in my heart like The Guild, but for now I'm just enjoying the ride.

You can check out the series by going to their website HERE or head over to You Tube and watch episodes, which I would strongly suggest you do.. just follow the LINK.

NerdStrong Workout - Squats, Dumbbells & Ring Pulls

Today was my first "official" workout session at Nerd Strong Gym. After my one on one session a few days ago I was a bit apprehensive for this session. I knew my limits and didn't want a repeat of last time. But with that said I also wanted a good workout and not push myself to my limit. It was fine balance but overall I think it worked.

I actually knew one person in the session with me today, Joey, who I haven't seen in quite a while but it was nice to see a familiar face. Today's workout started with warm up, which was nice since I didn't get a chance to do that beforehand. Our first activity was squats, we were teamed up with another person. I was teamed up with another noob, this was his first session as well.

We had to do 5 squats at 50% weight, 4 at 60%, 3 at 70%, 3 at 80% and 3 at 90% or something similar like that. Since both of us did not know our maximum weight on squats since we've never done them we started with some weight and continued to add more as we felt needed. We started with a 44lb bar, then added 25lbs to each side, before adding an additional 25lbs to each side and finally adding a bit more with 5lbs to each side... Our total weight was 154lbs. So next time I do these I know that I will start with 50% of that weight and move up as indicated. \

After squats the next activity was dumbbell raises and rings pulls. We had to do 5 rounds of dumbbell raises x5 and then 10 to 12 ring pulls.

And our final activity were doing 50 dumbbell raises (with a lighter dumbbell then previously used).

I'm happy to say that I finished third out of the group, which made me very happy. I was extremely tired but I didn't over do it this time. It was a good tired. I wasn't sore yet but I know tomorrow and the next day I was gonna be hurting.

I initially had booked a workout for Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of this coming week but after today's workout I know I'm going to need at least a day to recovery in-between so I cancelled my workouts for Monday and Wednesday. Maybe down the road I'll be up for workout like this everyday but for know I'm happy with three to four times a week.

If you guys are in the Los Angeles area you really should check out Nerd Strong Gym. Yes it's a bit pricey but it's so worth it... you get the one on one service with small groups (normally less then 15) that you can't normally get at a regular gym.. also everyone is so geek and so much nerd talk happen, it's pretty awesome.

My next session is schedule for Sunday... can't wait!!!

Poltergeist Remake & Storing my Cosplay

I normally don't mind remakes. I know some people who go ballistic and start questioning Hollywood's ability to produce anything original. But when I heard they were remaking Poltergeist I wasn't so happy. I am a HUGE fan of Poltergeist, I loved it when it first came out and devoured any an all information (behind the scenes) I could find. I enjoyed both of the sequels though I will admit they aren't as good as the original but still enjoyable. Poltergeist is my all time favorite Horror/Scary movie.. it's a classic!! But with all that said they released two new trailers for the upcoming Poltergeist remake and I have to so.. it looks pretty epic and I'm really looking forward to seeing it.

Here is the international trailer which I think is much better and spookier. It feels more like the original movie. 

So I've been cosplaying for something like five years now and I normally carry everything I need in various plastic bags. Of course things inevitably get lost or fall out and go missing, so I figured it was about time for me to spend some money on a good make-up/prosthetics/wig case that I could store everything in one place. Well I got the case today and I have to say that I LOVE IT!!! I thought I would have a ton of extra space but it's almost a bit to small for all my stuff. It's a definite improvement over my plastic bags system.

20 Years, Call The Midwife & Charlie

I just realized that 2015 marks my 20th anniversary working in the entertainment industry. It all started with my internship with Fox Labs (a development section of Fox), which lead to my first job as a production assistant on the revived game show The Dating Game and the rest is history. I went from production assistant to assistant production coordinator, to production coordinator, to assistant script supervisor, back to production assistant then jumped into post with junior assistant editor, then assistant editor, then editor, and finally to post production supervisor. I've had lots of great times, many stressful times and a few bad times but overall I'm really happy with my career choice. I don't know if I'll make it another 20 years in the entertainment industry but who know what the future holds for me.

I watched the latest Call the Midwife, S4 Ep3 The community is outraged and opinions divided at Nonnatus House when an expectant father is charged with gross indecency after being caught committing homosexual acts (at the time illegal in the United Kingdom). Phyllis investigates when she realizes that an impoverished Irish immigrant woman has lied about where she lives. Dr. Turner and Shelagh attempt to trace the source of an outbreak of dysentery.

This was one of my favorite episodes of Call the Midwife and that's staying something since I think all the episodes are pretty amazing. This one reminded me of the Imitation Game as the main character in that movie is also gay in the UK at the time of it being illegal. Unlike the movie this episode delved into it a bit more. We see how the community around this man turns into hateful small minded people. It not only effects the man but his poor pregnant wife.

This was a hard to watch episode. Not only is this poor man "trapped" in a straight marriage (because that's what you did back then) but he's not able to be who he was born to me. When he tires to hook up with another man he gets caught and goes before a judge. Luckily or not so lucky he does not go to jail but instead is put on probation with the requirements to start a hormone treatment to "fix" his homosexuality. The treatment is Estrogen, which has many side effects for men including growing breast tissue. This man is so distraught that it leads to an attempted suicide. Luckily his father-in-law finds him in time to save him and when he sees of new daughter he realizes that he has to do what is right for her and takes the treatment.. it's heartbreaking.

Oh one last thing I wanted to share with you guys.. I found a "Charlie" Pop figure. Charlie is a character from Supernatural played by the wonderful Felicia Day. She's been in five episodes now and I hope we get to see her in future episodes if not get a spinoff of her very own. Anyways back to the figure... I've been wanting to get this Pop for a while and I just happen upon one that was a decent price so I snapped it up. Hopefully I'll be able to get Felicia to autograph it for me one day.

Pushing Your Body To It's Limit

During the evening I headed to my one on one session at NerdStrong. NerdStrong is a geek/nerd themed gym. You can check out more info HERE. I was meeting up with creator and owner of NerdStrong Andrew. I got there a bit before 5:30 and Andrew was finishing up with another client so I hung out for a few minutes and checked the place out.

Once he was done with his client he turned his attention to me and we started our session. We talked for about 20 minutes and he explained how the gym works and his philosophy on working out. I have to say I was extremely impressed with his approach at getting fit. I explained past workout habits, my medical issues, and what I was hoping to get out of this experience.

He then explained the 10 minute fit test that I was about to do, they do this test to get a starting point on your physical fitness. The test consisted of a 250 meter row (on a machine), then 5 push ups, 10 ring pulls (like pulls up) and then 15 squats. You did this 3 times and then you had to run around the parking lot and I think it he said it was something like 200 and something meters. You had to try and get this all done within 10 minutes.

Well I started off and was doing pretty good, rowing was done, push ups, ring pulls and squats, first and second time were fine and then starting on the ring pulls for the third time I started feeling it, but I pushed through the pain and finish my ring pulls and then the final set of squats. As I started my run I went out full force and my legs felt like mush. I managed to run full force 2/3's around the parking lot and then I jogged the final 1/3 and the clock stopped.

Andrew asked what I thought my time was and I said 8 minutes.. hoping it was at least under 10 and he said you did it in 7 minutes. Which is really impressive for the first time.

I was glad I did well but I could tell that I had pushed my body to the limit and then pass it. I immediately sat down and drank some water, moments later I was lying on the floor gasping for air and sweating profusely. I laid there for about five minutes until I felt the urge to throw up so I excused myself to the bathroom and stumbled my way over and somehow got into the room, closed and locked the door. I made my way over to the toilet but it was so difficult to say upright that I just fell to the floor, the nice cold floor and laid there for about ten minutes before the urge to throw up came back and just as I made my way to the toilet it happened. I sat there hoping it would happen again but nothing more came out. I laid back down for another 20 or so minutes. The throw up sensation was gone but now my stomach was in cramps and it felt like I had to go to he bathroom. I don't know how I did it but I managed to pull down, my now soaked sweats and underwear, and get myself in a sitting position on the toilet but nothing happened and I couldn't keep myself upright for to long.

At this moment panic set in. I have never experience this before. I was still sweating profusely leaving wet spots on the floor and my breathing wasn't getting any calmer. If I had had my phone with me I probably would have called 911 and I was moments from calling for help as people started to arrived for the next workout session. But as I laid there on the floor for 45 minutes my breathing started to calm and soon become regular and I wasn't sweating as much. I sat up a bit dizzy but soon that would pass and I was finally able to stand up and exit the bathroom.

Andrew gave me the thumbs up as he was in the middle of class and I returned it with a smile and a nod. I was embarrassed as to what just happen so I really didn't make any eye contact with anyone and just made my way quickly out of the gym. All I wanted to do was get home and go to bed, which is exactly what I did. Soon as I got home I peeled off my soaked clothes and didn't even bother taking a shower I just crashed on my bed and slept for 10 hours.

Though the night ended badly, the experience at Nerd Strong was FANTASTIC!!!!  I really like Andrew, I think he really knows his stuff and I'm looking forward to my first session with other members.

Taxes & The Atom

Today I did my taxes. I normally take my taxes to my accountant Mike who has done them for the past 14 years. But 2014 wasn't a great work year for me as I only worked 5 weeks out of the entire year and didn't make that much. So I asked him if it was better for me to do my taxes myself and save me the cost of him doing them. Being awesome as he is he said if I CAN do my own taxes he'd suggest that I do them myself to save the money.

So I went to the H&R Block website but somehow a Turbotax page popped up and I didn't noticed so I started filling in the information. According to Turbo tax filing Federal taxes are free and there is a fee of $9.99 for state taxes. I'm well into filing (maybe an hour has passed) and I answer one of the many questions and a window pops up informing me that I can't file taxes using this "free" version that I have to purchase the deluxe version for $34.99. I was a bit annoyed but not totally surprised so I purchased the upgrade and continued filing my taxes. Federal was done and moved on to State. That went fairly quick and then I got to the end and it said that I would have to pay $121.97 to file my taxes. I was shocked as this isn't to far off of what I pay my tax guy to do my taxes. I noticed that they somehow slipped in "Audit protection" for $49.99 so I had to back track a few pages until I found the way they slipped that in and fixed it.

So now my Federal was $39.99 but my State wasn't $9.99 as it claimed at the beginning, it was now $36.99 for a total of $71.98. Now that's a far cry from being Free but it's less then half of what I normally pay my tax guy and the fact that I'm getting a refund I just said screw it and completed the transaction and filed my taxes.  Come to find out that the $9.99 for State taxes was the starting price (which they had in very tiny writing that I didn't see), so obviously California is one of the more expensive states. Needless to say it took me about two hours to file but I'm happy it's done and that I'm getting a refund from State and Federal... so yay me!!!!

The producers of Arrow released a full body picture of Brandon Routh's The Atom costume from an upcoming episode of Arrow. I'm a huge Brandon Routh fan, loved him since Superman Returns and was so excited when they added him to the cast of Arrow in season three. I didn't know he was going to be The Atom at first thinking that they just brought him in for a love triangle with Oliver, Felicity and Ray (Brandon's character) but the past few weeks the characters have been talking about this new exoskeleton suit and it looks as though we will get to see it in a few weeks.. can't wait!!!!

Superbowl Commercials, Heroes Reborn & RBS

I missed the Superbowl yesterday.. well I didn't miss it as so much as I didn't watch it. So I missed all the fun Superbowl commercials. So today with the help of my buddy Scott who has a fun entertainment blog called Experience it All I was able to watch a bunch of the commercials. Some were sweet, some were fun and some were sad. There was a lot of controversy over the Nationwide commercial. People were saying that it was in bad taste and were calling it the "Dead" kid commercial. I honestly don't understand peoples reactions to this commercial. I found it informative and it really got you to think about home safety. Now I will admit that I don't know how home safety fits in with insurance and financial services which the companies deals with but if they want to spend millions of dollars and preach about home safety then more power to them... the good thing is it got people talking.

I loved the Always #Likeagirl commercial. It was interesting to see how society has accepted these negative stereotype comments into our everyday vocabulary. It reminds me of the same derogatory statement "That's so Gay". People don't realize that these comments can hurt and change the way a person actually sees themselves.

The most bizarre commercial for me was the Skittles one. Where everyone in town how the huge muscular arm-wrestling arm including the baby and the dog.. very funny but bizarre. 

There were alots of TV and Movie trailers but the one that hit me the most and was probably the shortest one and that was the teaser trailer for the upcoming reboot of the series Heroes called Heroes Reborn. There wasn't a lot to it but when the music started playing it just brought me back to when I first watched the pilot episode of Heroes at San Diego Comic Con and was just blown away by it. This trailer got me excited again for Heroes so much so that I now want to do a rewatch. 

I actually only watched the first two seasons and started to taper off and only saw an episode or two of the third season and not a single episode of the fourth. Now that all four seasons are on Netflix I think I'll do a complete re-watch from the beginning... anyone want to join me?

During the evening I watched the return episode of the Red Band Society. I so love these series and I'm bummed that they stopped production after episode 13 and it's almost certain that it will be cancelled after they air all the episodes. I was happy to see the series return even if it is for only 3 episodes. I'm going love each and everyone of them. This weeks had lots of emotions, ups and downs and always leaves me with a warm feeling in my heart. I'll miss this series when it's gone.

MASH Podcast Anniversary & Call the Midwife Re-watch

Today Geekyfanboy Productions released a new episode of the MASH 4077 Podcast. Today's podcast covers Ep. 96, covering S4 Ep 24 "Deluge" Download from itunes tinyurl.com/MASH4077itunes , listen on Stitcher Radio ow.ly/iZJIz or listen, get direct download from our main website MASH4077Podcast.com

It's also the 4th year anniversary of the MASH 4077 Podcast. I want to thank my co-hosts Al and Meds as this podcast wouldn't be the success it is without you guys. And of course I want to thank all of our wonderful listeners for their continued support.

It was a lazy Sunday today.. I should have been "spring cleaning" but instead I did nothing but crash on the couch and re-watch Call the Midwife. I managed to watch all of season one and the first five episodes of season two. Such an amazing series and I'm so happy that it's back with season four.