Games, Friends & a Masquerade

So I got both of my buds addicted to Candy Crush last night. So this morning we spent a good hour lying in my bed just chilling and playing Candy Crush together. I then went and made biscuits and gravy for breakfast. It was a pretty awesome morning just hanging with my bros.. We were heading down to North Hollywood around 10:30am for a Birthday lunch for our friend Jes at 11:30. So we spent the next hour or so getting ready to leave.

We got to the Pitfire Grill but the time was pushed back a half hour so we just hung out and played some ping pong before more folks started to arrive. It was a fun lunch, lots of friends showed up. It was nice catching up with some that I hadn't seen in a while.

On our way home we stopped by Men's Wearhouse to pick up Chris' tux.. it did arrive... Yay!!! We also had Wienerschnitzel for lunch as it's one of Chris' favorite fast foods (as well as Robert's and mine) and they don't have them in Montana.

Afterwards we went back to my place and once again just hung out and enjoyed each others company. We watched Despicable Me as Chris had never seen it and we were hoping to see the sequel tomorrow before Chris left. It's such a fun movie and the more I watch it the more I enjoy it.

Both guys had plans tonight. Robert had a date so he left around 5pm. While I helped Chris get ready for his event The Labyrinth of Jareth. He was surprising our friend Jes who was also attending tonight. I've wanted to go to this masquerade for years now but one thing or another has always kept me from it. This time around it was finances. Anyways I helped Chris get into his tux and Assassin Creed accessories. He looked pretty awesome and I know he was happy with the end results. I even came up with a solution to keeping the Assassin Creeds emblem attached to his cummerbund.

I then drove him down to downtown Los Angeles where the event was taking place. Traffic wasn't that bad and I managed to get him there just a little after the 8pm opening.

I picked up some dinner and went back home. It was weird to be alone in my house, I mean I'm always alone in my house but the past four days I have had one to two other folks crashing here and you quickly forget that feeling of being alone, until you are alone again.

Luckily for me Robert got back to my place around 1am. We talked briefly about his date before crashing. Chris was out partying the night away and going to crash elsewhere.

Bros, Buffy & Webseries

Robert, Chris and I got up around 8am and got ready for our day. We headed out to iHop for some breakfast before making our way back to my house. Robert was joining us for the weekend. First thing we did when we got to Santa Clarita was find a Men's Warehouse as Chris needed to rent a tux for a party on Saturday. With one day notice they couldn't guarantee that the tux would be ready by tomorrow but Chris took a chance. The lady took his measurements and he left a deposit.. all we can do now is keep our fingers crossed that it comes in tomorrow morning.

We headed back to my place and crashed. Robert and I wanted to finish up our Buffy rewatch/1st time as we only had four more episode left for the series. Chris was cool with watching even though he's never seen Buffy.. he wanted to be part of our Buffy and Bros and what better time to join us then at our final Buffy and Bro viewing.

We started with with S7 Ep 19 "Empty Places" The citizens of Sunnydale flee en masse and Sunnydale becomes a ghost town. Willow uses magic to get information from the police on Caleb, and Spike and Andrew leave to pursue a lead. Buffy confronts the group and demands that they make better choices, and reveals her plans for another attack, at which point the group pass a vote of no confidence in Buffy. Buffy leaves and Faith reluctantly becomes the new leader.

A good episode.. everyone losing faith in Buffy has been building up the past few episodes. It was nice to see Faith take control of the group. Spike and Andrew were great comedy relief.. they make a fun duo.

Then we moved onto S7 Ep 20 "Touched" A depressed Buffy is comforted by Spike while the Scoobies capture and interrogate a Bringer. Faith decides on a plan.

Another good episode.. I really dislike "emo" Buffy so I'm glad it only last this episode. Faith and Robin taking a tumble in the sack would seem to go along with Faith's personality. I liked that Spike berated everyone for throwing Buffy out. They all deserved a good talking to. Faith taking the girls into a trap was nice and Buffy realizing what she has to do to fight Caleb and finds the  scythe.

And the second to last episode was S7 Ep 21 "End of Days" The stage is set for the the final battle with The First.

This episode was pretty much a set up for the finale that was about to come. Buffy rescues the potentials and Faith after the trap. She is leader again. They find out that the scythe was made by a group of women for the slayer. I read that the scythe was introduced in Joss' comic book Fray (about a future Slayer) so it was nice to see it here in the TV series. I liked the final battle between Caleb and Buffy with the help of Angel. I liked that Spike is the Champion that Angel was talking about, that he has a bigger role in the apocalypse.

And finally we watched the final episode of Buffy The Vampire Slayer S7 Ep 22 "Chosen" depicting the events leading to and including the final battle between the Potential Slayers, organized by Buffy and her friends and The First Evil.

A great ending to a fantastic series. I loved the idea of Buffy/Willow taking the power that was used to create the scythe and giving it to all the girls/women who were/are potential Slayers all around the world. Now there are hundreds of Slayer to fight evil. The final battle was epic. I remember when I first watched this 10 years ago and Anya dying so matter of factly caused an uproar from the fans. But like with most of Joss' deaths, life happens.. sometimes people die not in a blaze of glory, some die fighting and it's over in a matter of seconds. I was sad that she died as I always loved Anya.

Overall is was a fantastic rewatch, I hadn't seen most of this series since it originally aired over ten years ago. It was fun being able to share this series with my best bud Robert. He loved the series which makes watching it again even better.

We're not sure what we are going to move on to next... There are so many great scifi/fantasy TV series that I would love to share with Robert.. .Angel, Smallville (only seen first 2 seasons), Babylon 5 (only seen first season), Farscape, X-Files, the list goes on an on. So stay tuned to find out what we pick next for our Rewatch/1st time viewings.

After watching Buffy Robert, Chris and I started working on the webseries that Chris and I are writing. We have six episodes written and the three of us went through them to punch them up a bit. I wanted to include some more "slap stick" in them. In the end we found out that they had a good deal of slapstick in them already but we did make some tweaks as we read them out loud to each other.

Another awesome day with two of my most favorite people in the world. Wish everyday could be spent with these two guys. 

Friends, Fireworks & Fun

Got up around 8am and jumped online to check emails and such, Chris was up as well and I found out later that he had already gone for a run. We made our traditional biscuits and gravy for breakfast and then headed out to my buddy Will's parents place out in Rancho Palos Verdes for a 4th of July celebrations. On our way down it dawned on me that we would drive by Robert's place so I texted him to see if he wanted Chris and I to pick him up for the party. He did so we stopped by his place and grabbed him. Our next stop was our friend Rupert's house. He left his wallet at my place last Sunday after the Marian Call concert. We had to make a slight detour to get to his place but he couldn't drive unless he had his license. We then stopped by a grocery store as Chris wanted to pick up some steaks and then finally we stopped at Bev Mo to pick up some alcohol.

We were now ready to get to the party. We made our way up the windy road. I knew Will's parent lived in a nice house overlooking Long Beach but I had no idea how awesome it was going to be. We arrived and parked and our friend Brett and Doug were already there. We unloaded and I got to met Will's Dad & Mom. Now I've known will for many many years and he's talks about his parents to me and vice verse all the time, but this is the first time I actually got to meet them and I have to say they did not disappoint. They were friendly, sweet, funny and just loving people. It's as if we've been friends forever. I see why Will is the way he is.. totally makes sense now.

We finished unloading and saying hi to everyone. It was hot so we changed into our swimming shorts and jumped in the pool. At first it was just Chris and I, then Brett joined us, then Robert and finally Doug. Kim sat in the lawn chair and Will and his parents finished getting things ready. Soon more and more people arrived. I knew about half the folks. We ate all day long, they had a ton of fruit, chips, cookies and veggies for snacks and they would BBQ sausages, veggies, chicken, and ribs throughout the day.  We drank ale and beer most of the day.

We went into the pool several times throughout the day. One of these times Will introduced us to a game called "Toothpick". You take a toothpick and place it between your toes and then jump into the deep end of the pool and release it. Then a group of six or seven of us stand on the outside trying to visually find the toothpick and when you do you have to jump in and while you are jumping in you have to grab the toothpick on your way in. You can't search for it or grab on your way up. It's tough but a ton of fun. I only manage to get it three times but Chris and Will were neck n' neck and in the end Chris got to 10 first.

We shot a BB gun outback. We were shooting some cups and cans.. Will shot both a cup and a can and it took me to my third try but I did it... I shot a can as well. I think we were the only two people who actually hit something.

Becca came to the back to tell me that Will wants to see me out front so I go out there and he points to a house that's only a few hundred yards away and who do I see there on the back porch waving at me.. my friend Ben who I used to work with. He lives just around the corner from Will's parents. We actually drove over to his house and checked it out. It was good seeing Ben.

Once back at Will's parents place the sun had gone down and the fireworks had begun. Will told me that we'd be able to see a few different fireworks going off.. he wasn't kidding. We say hundreds of fireworks going off. There were several big events like the Queen Mary in Long Beach and Disneyland and Home Depot Center but there were a ton of private fireworks going off and we could see them all.. it was pretty amazing.

Chris grilled his steaks and several of us enjoyed a steak dinner. The party started to come to an end. When I first got to Will's, Chris, Robert and I intended on staying the night as I won't ever drink and drive. But Robert was having trouble with his contact lens in his right eye and forgot to bring his contact stuff and wanted to go home, so I stopped drinking a few hours before we left. Robert stopped before me so when it came time to leave I was sober but still didn't want to drive so Robert drove. We went back to Robert's place to crash for the night.

Overall it was a fantastic day and a great celebration of America's birthday. Will and his parents were fantastic hosts and we couldn't have asked for a better place to see a ton of fireworks.

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY EVERYONE!!!!

A Good Day!!

I started my day with some LOTRO play before heading out to Burbank and picking up one of my favorite people in the world, Chris. He was flying in for the long extended Fourth of July weekend. He's flight got in around 4pm.. I waited for him at the baggage claim and as soon as I saw him walking up I had to go over and give him a big hug and he return the hug by squeezing me even tighter. It was a good hug, lasted a few minutes. I miss this guy so much even though we talk via facebook, skype, google almost everyday, it's not the same as having him here in person.

We decided to avoid traffic back to my place and instead went to Gordon Biersch for some late lunch/dinner. Afterwards we went over to the AMC theater and watched Monsters University. I've been wanting to see this movie since it came out. Loved Monsters Inc and knew I would just love Monsters University and I did. It was fun seeing how these two guys became best friends. Young Mikey is adorable and reminds me of me when I was young (always the smallest and no one ever paid attention to me). I enjoyed the story, it was funny, touching, and had a lot of heart. Is it better then the first one. I don't think so, the first one if a classic and this one can become a classic with more viewings. It's diffidently a hit and I can't wait to pick it up on blu-ray and watch it again and again. I give Monsters University a solid A.

After the movie we headed back to my place but first picked up some food for breakfast and some snacks. We hung out for a few more hours before calling it a night.. we have a big day ahead of us tomorrow.. should be a blast.

House Maintenance

Today I cleaned up the rest the house, looked like a bomb went off in the kitchen. My buddy Chris was flying in from Montana and my buddy Robert was coming over for the four day weekend so I wanted the place to look good. After cleaning up the house I finally finished the trim on the house windows. So now the only trim I have left to paint on the house is the roof trim and of course the garage. Roof trim is going to be hard as I don't think I have a ladder that goes all the way to the top of the peak of my roof. So instead I think I'm going to climb up on the roof and hang over the side and paint that way.. won't be the easiest thing to do but it really is the only way to get it done.

Not much happen today.. kind of a nice lazy day. I watched some TV and played some LOTRO and of course looked for work (with no luck). I am super excited for tomorrow as my best bud Chris is flying in from Montana to hang out the next five days.

Hobbits, Hobbits and more Hobbits

Still recovering from the awesome day that was yesterday (Marian Call concert). Everything was clean expect the kitchen, but I didn't feel like cleaning much. So instead I released my next MASH podcast and then jumped onto Lord of the Rings Online, which I will talk more about in a minute.. first there was a big surprise today when Peter Jackson released another production video. If you don't know who Peter is, he's the director and co-writer of The Lord of the Rings movies and now the Hobbit trilogy. He's been releasing these great behind the scenes production videos with really interesting fact and footage from the making of The Hobbit movies. This was the first one for the new The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug. (aka Hobbit 2)

Of course this video is another home run.. like the 10 before this one it's full of fun and interesting information and it gives you just a hint of what we will be seeing this coming fall to get you really pumped for the movie. I really appreciate Mr. Jackson taking the time to do these and I hope to see many more in the future.

Now back to LOTRO, they were doing a Treasure Hunt event for the past four days. It was taking place out in Dwarf land (Ered Luin). You had to do two tasks and earn pic axes and then go and dig in holes and find various treasures. Only issue was you had a 15 minute cool down time between tasks. So I'd do the two tasks then go and clean up or do something around the house for 15 minutes and then come back and do it again. Each time you completed a task you got 2 pic axes and a good chunk of XP. I did this back and forth for about 10 hours on the first day, 2 hours on the second day, 0 hours on the third day, 1 hour on the fourth and what I thought was the final day. But they extended the treasure hunt one more day so today I spent a good 13 hours playing every 15 minutes.. There were three mounts you could possibly find, they were hidden in what they called the HUGE Cache. I did manage to get all three of the mounts, the first was the more common one, the treasure laden pony, then I got the pony with the cave claw mask and finally today only a few hours before it ended I got my treasure laden goat.. named Dunken. He's pretty awesome. I mean I love my seven other ponies but riding a goat is pretty cool. During the 26 hours of play over five days I got a ton of awesome goodies, huge amount of XP (I actually leveled up from 43 to 47 and a few really cool big prizes as I manage to find 12 of the HUGE Caches. It was a blast. Here's a pic of my Hobbit Drialdo on my goat Dunken

MASH 4077 Podcast Ep 57

Download from itunes tinyurl.com/MASH4077itunes , listen on Stitcher Radio ow.ly/iZJIz or Listen, get direct download from our main website 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 3, Episode #9 - Alcoholics Unanimous

57th Episode Overall

Directed by Hy Averback
Written by Everett Greenbaum & Jim Fritzell
Production code B314
Original air date November 12, 1974

Set during the Korean War in the 1950’s

Plot Summary: Henry's departure to Tokyo leaves Major Burns in charge of the 4077th. He declares total prohibition of alcohol, which leads to a near riot amongst the camp, especially from Hawkeye and Trapper.

Marian Call House Concert

Today is the day I've been waiting for the past few months. Marian Call is performing at my house. It all started with a text that I received from my buddy Luis asking if I was interested in hosting a Marian Call house concert. I didn't hesitate to say yes. I've seen her in concert several times and love her music. The next task was getting folks to come out to my place for it. My goal was to get 30 to 35 people for the concert. That way Marian would have a decent chance of getting some donations and making this concert worth the trip. Slowly but surely the guest list grew and soon we hit the 35 guests mark. I was excited. Then the week of the concert we started to lose people for various reasons and I understand things come up and so on but we still had about 30 people coming. Well that was until the day before and the day of the event. Suddenly it was like a mass exodus and 11 people dropped out at the last minute. That left 19 guests for this Marian Call house party, a far cry from the 35 that I thought I had only a few weeks ago. Again I'm not upset and I understand things come up I'm just disappointed in myself at not being able to gather a large enough group of friends to hit my goal.

Anyways.. my buddy Brett came over last night to help me get things set up in the morning. I only had a few things to do. Wanted to water the trees, pull some weeds, clean up the kitchen area and master bathroom. I also needed to go shopping and pick up some water, chips and soda. We were done around 1pm and folks started to show up. Soon the majority of the people were here and then Marian and her guitarist Bryan arrived. We agreed upon a spot for them to set up and then everyone helped bring in their equipment. Soon we were ready to go. A few more people arrived and we took our seats and the concert began. She sang for the next hour or so before taking a break to sell some CD's and sign some autographs. We chatted and snacked for about 30 minutes and then they did another 30 to 45 minute set. She did new stuff and classic songs. It was fantastic.

One of many things I love about Marian is audience participation, like "Shark Week". I love that she's so interactive with her audience.

Once the show was over she and Bryan hung out with us for the rest of the night. We talked, played some Card Against Humanity and Space Team. As it was hitting 9pm I realized there were still a about 12 people here so I suggested making spaghetti for dinner, it's something that I have a lot of and it feeds alot. As I made the pasta and sauce, Marian grilled some veggies to mix into the sauce and my friend Rebecca helped with the bread. We had dinner ready in no time. After dinner we talked for a bit more and then the party started to come to an end.

Though we didn't get as many people as I was expecting or hoping for it was still a very fun an intimate concert. Thanks Marian for choosing my house, thanks to Luis for connecting Marian and I and thanks to all those who came the enjoy the music, Robert, Jes, Aaron, Dallas, Luis, Doug, Rupert, Becca, Will, Tamar, Anne, Andrew, Angelique, Troy, Nicki, Rebecca, Steve and a special thanks to Brett who helped me set up, go shopping and clean up afterwards.. Thanks to you all for making this a great day.

You can check out more pictures from the concert HERE.

Tattoos & Dragons

Got up around 8am, made some breakfast (pancakes) then headed out to my brothers for a tattoo party. Both Robert and I needed to get a touch up on several of our tattoos. My buddy Moose, the one who actually did my three tattoos was coming over to my brother's today to do tattooing all day. We needed to be there at noon because we had to leave by 3pm to get to our D&D session today and it's about an hour and a half away from my brother's place.

We got there a little early and hung out with my brother's family while we waited. It's so cool how Robert had integrated himself into my family. This was the first time Robert was at my brother's house so Mike had to show him his Star Wars room and his many many arcade games.

Moose arrived and after eating lunch we got started around 1pm. Robert was first as I wanted to make sure he got his tattoo fixed first just in case we ran out of time. His fix took about an hour and the result are like night and day. He had gotten Sonic the Hedgehog symbol on his forearm last year. But the guy who did it, didn't do a great job, so Robert asked him to fix it.. and he did. Or I should say he didn't. Still looked like sloppy work. So Moose went at it and I think Robert was extremely happy with the end result. It's much sharper and darker and looks amazing.

My turn was next and I have having Moose touch up my Lord of the Rings tattoo that he did last year for me. There was this small area that I felt didn't get enough red. Well Moose had something else in mind and did about half my yellow over again, made it much richer and he did all the red and made it look more like it was burning through my skin.. I love it. This time around the line work was killing me. I had to keep telling myself to breath. I don't know why the pain was more intense then last time but man I was hurting.. the shading didn't hurt as much (which is different from last time).

We did mange to go over our exit time but it was worth it. We got out of my brother's place and headed to Dallas and Jes' place for D&D. We arrived about a half hour later then we planned but everyone was still just settling in so we didn't miss anything.

We jumped right into our continuing D&D campaign, Dash was doing okay this time. I mean he didn't die and that always a good thing but my buddy Nar almost did. There was lots of conflict on what to do next. Half of us wanted to get out of the temple and back to town and the other half wanted to continue to explore deep catacombs under the temple. In the end the group who didn't want to leave got into a bit a trouble (hence why Nar almost died) so some of us (excluding the rogues) came back to help out. In the end we did leave the temple and back to the town where Dash (that's me) got kidnapped and now has a knife against his throat... what will happen next.. we have to wait two weeks!!! Good stuff.. so much fun.

It's also my friend Jen's birthday, a large group are going out to drink and see a movie called The Room which I will not be partaking in because of my big plans tomorrow. Anyways before we called it a night we sat Jen down and we all sang to her (we had the lyrics printed out) to "Still Alive" the song from Portal (one of her favorite games) as the line was sung about the cake being so delicious and moist we presented her with a chocolate cheese cake that looked liked the cake from the game. Jen was over joyed, she was truly at a loses for words.. it was pretty epic. And I have to say that our little group weren't that bad of singers :)

I said my goodbyes and headed home. My buddy Brett was joining me as he was attending the event at my place tomorrow and was going to crash at my place and help me set up tomorrow morning.

Magic Mountain Time!!!

Today I went to Six Flags Magic Mountain with my friends Josh and Nicole. But before I left I got up early (6:30am) and worked on my next MASH 4077 podcast as it's due to be released on Monday July 1st and I won't have any free time the next few days. Luckily for me Josh and Nicole were running late so I got to not only finish my MASH podcast but I also manage to clean up the house a bit for this weekend.

I got to Magic Mountain around 11am and I couldn't believe how packed it was. Not only was it packed but it was hot and I mean HOT, 110f. I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to physically stay out in that sun all day. I planned to just hang out with them for a few hours but honestly once your body acclimates to the temperature it's not that bad.. I mean it's hot and you feel gross but after a while it doesn't bother you.

We rode a total of about seven roller coasters (Revolution, Viper, Roaring Rapids, Ninja, Superman, Jet Stream and Apocalypse) from Noon to 11:30am to 7:30pm. We didn't want to stand in the unspecified time line for the new roller coaster Full Throttle. It was such a made house, figured I'll go again when it's not so busy after the newness wears off.

All in all it was a fun, though extremely hot time at Six Flags Magic Mountain.. Thanks Nicole for the invite.

I stopped by Taco Bell and picked up some dinner and got home just in time for Robert to arrive. He is crashing at my place tonight as we are getting up early and heading out to my brothers for a tattoo party (both of us are getting tattoo's touched up).

Twitter, Pipes and Buffy

Today I noticed that I lost about 7 followers on Twitter in the past 24 hours, I'm not sure why. It could be Twitter cleaning out spam bots or it could be folks who aren't enjoying what I'm having to say. Regardless you try and not let it effect you but it always does for a few minutes at least, but then it passes. I made the mistake of complaining about it on twitter and kind of got a little backlash with some complaining that I really have nothing to complain about, since I have over 2400 followers. What they don't understand is that Twitter and all of social media is very important to podcasters. It's our main source to getting news out there about our podcasts. I may have just over 2400 followers but more is always better. Plus I have been stalled at trying to get to 2500 followers for about six months and I was finally showing some movement and got to 2462 but now I'm dropping again. When it comes to social media and podcasting, be it followers on Twitter or Likes on your Facebook Page, more is always better.

Went to Lowes today and picked up two more repair kits for my busted water well pipe as well as a portable sauntering iron as my last resort. As my previous repair didn't take and my well pump has been off for about three days, I didn't have much hope for this quick fix idea.. but to my surprise the very first one I tired (cheapest of the group) worked great and now my well pipe is sealed, the well pump is back on pumping water and not a drop of water coming out of the pipe.. woohoo.. now I can return the two items that I didn't have to work and get my money back.. which is always a good thing.

If you're a regular reader of my blog you may have noticed that I didn't blog about Buffy Wednesday that's because it was pushed until today.. Buffy Thursday. Drove down to my Robert's place, we ordred some pizza and wings and continued out Buffy Rewatch (for me) and 1st time (for Robert). We started tonights viewing with S7 Ep 15 "Get it Done" Buffy Summers introduces Principal Wood to the rest of the crew and he gives her a bag that he got from his mother. One of the girls commits suicide after talking to the First. Buffy uses the set of shadow figures in the slayer's bag to trigger a portal. On the other side, she meets the Shadow Men, who tell her of the origin of the Slayer and offer to infuse her with more power. She refuses upon discovering the cost. They leave her with a terrifying vision.

I liked this episode. It delves more into how the slayer was created. It also shows us what exactly the first evil has waiting for our heroes.. and it terrifies Buffy.

Next up is S7 Ep 16 "Storyteller" "Storyteller" refers to Andrew Wells, who became a pseudo-member of the Scooby Gang after being one of the The Trio, Buffy's enemies in Season Six, and has been held hostage at since Summers' home since early in the season. Andrew composes a video documentary narrating the apocalyptic adventures of Buffy and the Scooby Gang.

Fun episode, Robert mention how much he is enjoying the character development for "once bad guy" Andrew and I agree with him. I love the idea of documenting Buffy and all her deeds. I mean I'd be doing the exact same thing if I was in his shoes. Lots of humor in this episode.

We then watched S7 Ep 17 "Lies My Parents Told Me" The Scooby Gang investigates Spike's trigger. Robin Wood and Giles team up behind Buffy's back.

Been waiting for this episode.. a god Spike back story episode. And of course Woods finally confronts Spike about killing his mother. Spiked looked like he was done for but then suddenly old Spike is back and almost kills Woods. And Buffy is so pissed at Giles for trying to deceive her. 

And the final episode of the night was S7 Ep 18 "Dirty Girls" A group of Bringers chase a new Potential into the grasp of Caleb, an evil villain in priest's clothing. He gives her a message for the Slayer, burns her, stabs her, and throws her out of the car. Willow and Faith return to Sunnydale and find the injured girl, who tells Buffy that Caleb says he has something of hers. Buffy gathers a group of dismayed Potentials for an attack against Caleb after she and Faith discover his stronghold. The attack is a disaster; Caleb easily overpowers the whole group, including Buffy, Spike and Faith, killing two potentials and seriously injuring Xander. The terrified survivors are taken to the hospital and Buffy reflects on the debacle.

First of all Nathan Fillion!!!!  I knew he showed up at the end of Buffy but couldn't remember what episode. Also we get the return of Faith which I completely forgot about so that was a happy surprise. This was a great episode, it really puts Buffy to the test and she fails. We lose two potential slayers and many are injured including poor Xander who loses an eye. Good stuff all around.. it's setting everything up nicely for the huge showdown coming in the season finale.

Speaking of season finale.. we are only 4 episodes of way from ending our Buffy Rewatch/1st. We should be able to wrap up this series with our next viewing. Robert and I have been talking about which series to do next... in the running is of course Angel, Smallville or Babylon 5. We made watch several series at once.. it's not like we have to watch nothing but one series. Will have to make that decision in the coming weeks.. can't wait for our next Buffy night and finishing off this fantastic series.

A Good Day To Be Gay!!

Big news today... the Supreme Court over turned D.O.M.A. (The Defensive Marriage Act) Which stated that a  marriage can only be legal between a man and a woman . So even though some states made gay marriage legal in the eyes of the Federal government it was not.

D.O.M.A. effected my relationship with Harry as Harry was from Austria and we could not get married and request a spousal green card. So instead Harry stayed in this country illegally rather then traveling back and forth every few months. It's something every bi-national couple has to deal with. But being here illegally and not able to work or do much put a strain on our relationship which of course ended after an 8 years. If  D.O.M.A  had not been there who know what our future would have looked like. So this ruling means a lot to me. It may be too late for Harry and I but there are thousands of bi-national couples who no longer have to break the law or travel back and forth every few months to be with their loved ones.

Of course you have all the haters (religious conservatives mostly) all over the news saying now that D.O.M.A. is gone people will start marring animals and inanimate objects... so stupid. All this means is that people who are in love can now get married and enjoy the full benefits that our government offers.

The other big news.. especially for Californians, Prop 8 appeal was rejected by the Supreme Court. Which means the lower courts decisions stands. Some back story.. Gay marriage was legalized in California a few years back, then they put an intuitive on the ballot, Prop 8 and unfortunately it passed with 52% of the vote. So after only a few months gay marriages was illegal once again. Then some couples took Prop 8 to court and fought to get it over turned. After a long court battle it was deemed unconstitutional and was over turned. Well the haters quickly filed an appeal to the Supreme Court and while they were waiting the ban on gay marriages still stood. We waited and waited until finally today the Supreme Court refused to take case which means the lower court decision that it's unconstitutional stands and gay marriages in California will resume once again.

As of July 2013, thirteen states (California, Connecticut, Delaware, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington), the District of Columbia, and five Native American tribes have legalized same-sex marriage.

So only 13 of 50 states but hey we're getting there.. baby steps... I mean just ten years ago we had no states and if we can get another 13 in ten years I'd be super happy with that. And I'm happy that if I do find another partner to share my life with, either local or abroad I can now legally marry them and have it recognized by my State and Country for what it is.. LOVE.

Disneyland with Christopher

Today I got up and headed to Disneyland with my buddy Christopher. This was going to be his last trip to Disneyland for a while since he's moving up to the Bay area. Though I have known Christopher for over ten years and we are both huge Disney fans this will be the first time we've have gone to Disneyland together.

We got there around noon which is pretty late for me and it was pretty busy for a weekday but then Christopher reminded me that school is out for the summer. First thing I did when we got there was grab a corn dog for lunch. Christopher went over to the Tomorrow Land food court to get his lunch. We sat in the Tomorrow Land food court area and watched the Jedi Training event that they do there every few hours. Afterwards we headed to Star Tour as that is one ride I tend to do every time I visit Disneyland.

Afterwards we rode a few more rides but like I said it was busy and lines were long. We headed over to Disney California Adventures around 5pm and that place was packed as well. We headed to Tower of Terror but it was an 80 minute wait so we skipped it. We did ride Mator's Tractor Pull ride as Christopher had never ridden that.. he liked it. We only did a few more rides there before calling it quits for the day around 8:30pm. Before we left Christopher wanted to hit up the World of Disney store.. I've never been there and OMG is that a huge place. Lot's and lots of awesome Disney stuff.. now I know why I haven't been in there.. I could spend a ton of money. We did manage to find a Sully hat to match my Wazowski hat. Anyways Christopher got a shirt he wanted and we called it a night.

Thought we didn't ride a ton of rides it was still and awesome time hanging with Christopher at one of our favorites places. I can't wait to visit him up in the Bay area, I love San Fransisco and haven't been there years. 

Helping a Friend

So I got up this morning and checked to see if the fix I did to the well worked.. I turned on the well pump and immediately water started leaking through the patch.. then it started spraying everywhere as if the patch wasn't even on it. I quickly turned off the well pump again, signed and headed back inside to work on plan B.

Today I was heading over to my buddy Christopher's place to help him pack for his big move up to the Bay Area. I got there around noon and he assigned me to pack up his kitchen. I worked on it for a few hours before we headed out to lunch, when we got back I continued to finish the kitchen. I was almost done when it was dinner time. We headed out to Chevy's for some much needed dinner. Who know packing was such hard work. When we got back I finished up the kitchen and then moved on to a few odds and ends before calling it a night.

I crashed at his place as we were going to Disneyland the next day.

Life's Curve Ball

So today started off with a huge smack in the face. As many of you know I have been jobless for a while now and really have worked only 4 months out of the past 24 months. So needless to say I've used up all my savings and funds are extremely low at this time, in fact I had to request some money from a family member (which I hate doing). This family member was my safety net, they ensured me that no matter what I would not lose my house, they would help me out financially until I could get back on my feet. Well I got a call today from this "family member" and they informed me that they were not going to help me, for reasons I won't go into here but needless to say they didn't make any sense... at least to me. So one week away from my mortgage being due and bills being due I must now scramble and figure out how I'm going to pay for things and not lose my house. Talk about blood pressure going up and the stress mounting. I got off the phone and immediately started to have chest pains. Panic was setting in and all I could do was tell myself to calm down and to breath.

I really didn't have much time to think about what I was going to do because I was recording six new episodes of my MASH 4077 Podcast with my buddies Al and Meds at noon. We were also having some "guest" co-hosts joining us. These are listeners who entered a raffle and won spots as co-hosts.

Even though I was in panic mode the recording went great, we had very few technical issues and the conversations were fun and entertaining. There will be a few editing challenges but I'm up for them. 

Finished recording around 2:30pm, said my goodbyes and let the panic resume. I quickly checked to see how much I had left in the bank. There's nothing left in my savings.. a hundred or so in paypal and about a hundred in cash. I was freaking out.. for the first time in over 10 years I didn't know what I was going to do. I mean I lived pay check to pay check all through my teens, 20's and into my 30's but I've never had a house mortgage, especially a large house mortgage.

Four o'clock came around and I went outside to water my trees because my watering system is broke and I can't afford to fix it.. especially now.  You know that saying.. "when it rains, it pours". Well I got out near the well for my water and noticed that one of the pipes had split open and water was spraying all over the place. I quickly turned off my well pump to stop the water from spraying out. Luckily for me I have a 500 gallon reserve tank so I should be okay for a while if needed.

There were five or six small holes in the metal pipe. I quickly jumped in my car and headed to Lowes. Remember when I go anywhere it's at least a 20 to 30 minute drive. All I'm thinking is I'm wasting gas that I soon won't be able to fill up.

Got to Lowes, found the plumbing area and looked for a solution. I found a metal pipe fix-it repair pack for $11 bucks. Looked fairly reliable so I got it. I got home and it was starting to get dark so I quickly applied the patch and would let it dry overnight and test it out tomorrow morning and see if the leak was fixed.. cross your fingers.

Also while I was dealing with my well issues I remembered that I do have emergency credit cards (2 of them with a fairly large limits). So my plan B is to charge as many bills as I can to my credit card and then get a cash advance for my mortgage. I don't want to go into debt again but this will at least give me another month (July) to find a job or come up with another plan.

The panic and stress isn't gone but it's defiantly more manageable now that I have an idea of what I'm going to do. Life is funny sometimes.. it knocks you down and just for fun it's gives you a good kick in the balls.

IT Crowd, Thrones and a Friend

Today my good friend Jen came over to hang out. We haven't had a one on one hangout in quite a while and it was long over due. She got here around noon and he headed out to El Pollo for some lunch. While we were out we grabbed some snacks as we planned to chill out and watch some TV.

Jen introduced me to The IT Crowd, I had heard of it but didn't really know much about it until we watched the 1st season at our last "hangout". I watched season two and some of three back in November of 2012, so today we are going to finish season 3 and watch season 4. When season 4 was over I was sad that that was going to be it.. but I did hear that they are doing at 40 minute one-off episode to wrap things up. It's not as good as a full season five but will take what we can get. Any amount of Roy, Moss and Jen is always a good thing.

The IT Crowd is such a funny show, Moss was my favorite when I first started watching but I've really taken a liking to Roy (I mean he's so adorable). I use to really dislike Jen but she's grown on me but I still very much dislike the owner of the company. I was disappointed to see quite a few episodes in season 4 that revolved around this very unlikable character (including the last episode of the series).

After the IT Crowd, we watched some more Game of Thrones. Jen loaned me her blu-rays of seasons 1 and 2, but I've only been able to really watch the first two episodes of season one. So we continued to watch starting with Season 1 Ep 3.

I have heard that it's extremely slow at times and I agree but like that. It's all about the characters and building the drama. I read 2/3'ds of the first book so I kind of have an idea of what's going on so maybe that helps with the pacing. But so far I'm loving it.

We took a break and headed to Vasquez Rocks for a hike, we figured since we were snacking on donuts and chips we should try and counter that with a good hike. We hike Vasquez for over 45 minutes. It was beautiful outside and a very nice hike. 

Back home we continued with Game of Thrones.. S1 Ep 4. We made some dinner that we had purchased earlier from the store and then watched S1 Ep 5. Again, loving the storytelling and the characters. I know Jen could have kept going and to be honest so could I but it was already pass 11pm and I figured this was a good place to stop.. I'm halfway through season 1. I can't wait to get back to it and finish off season 1 and move on to season 2.

Thanks Jen for a fun day of awesome TV shows and great company.. hope it's not another year before we can do this again.

Knights of the Guild Ep 51

My trim painting continued.. nothing to exciting.. just painting.

I did manage to edit and release the next episode of Knights of the Guild podcast.

Download from itunes: bit.ly/KotGCast, Listen on Stitcher Radio ow.ly/linep or Listen / Direct Download from the main website bit.ly/2CrYxk

This episode is all about Greg Aronowitz, we sit down and talk sets and props for Season 6 of The Guild.

It's always fun talking with Greg as he's been in the industry for so long and has worked with some of the biggest names in Hollywood. He has the best stories. 

New Look!!!

So I decided to change my look up a bit, I shaved the beard and dyed my gray hair. I've had the beard "look" for over 10 years and only shaved it off when I would cosplay as a Hobbit. But it never lasted more then a few days. I posted a before and after pic on Facebook and twitter and the majority, I'd say about 70% said they liked the beardless Kenny and 30% said they liked the bearded Kenny.

I think I so look younger without the beard, especially since there is so much gray in it. But I think I look fatter without the beard as it can hide my double chin.. so it's a trade off... youth for fatness. I'm going to try it for a while and see how it goes. I mean SDCC is coming up and I'd be shaving anything as I plan on cosplaying again as Frodo/Bilbo Baggins.

Productivity wise I continued to paint the trim on the house. It's a process that I have gotten down but still it feels like I'm moving so slow. But I'm happy that I'm moving forward, slow or not it's getting done.

It's Buffy Time

So it's been a few weeks since Robert and I had our Buffy night rewatch/1st time so we were both excited to pick that back up again tonight. We are actually in the middle of the final season, season seven. We started the night off with S7 Ep 12 "Potential" Willow learns from her contacts that there is another Potential Slayer in Sunnydale. She casts a reveal spell that makes all the Scooby Gang (except Buffy, who is not home) think this new Potential is Dawn. Dawn runs into her friend Amanda, who tells her that all sorts of strange things have been happening to her. The two go to the school to investigate. Their encounter with vampires and Bringers leads Dawn to realize that Amanda is the actual Potential, not her. Dawn and Amanda escape and Buffy, Spike, and Xander arrive in time to defeat the Bringers.

A good episode, you really believe that Dawn is a potential and it makes sense as they used the blood of the slayer to create her.. but of course you find out it's Amanda who happen to be standing on the other side of the front door when Willow did the spell. This is one of the very few episode that I actually enjoyed Xander. His speech to Dawn about being the "sidekick" with no powers and just being "support" was touching and truthful. It was a great moment between Dawn and Xander.  Also I was shocked with Spike and Buffy left the four potential in the crypt with the vampire to fend for themselves.

Next up was S7 Ep 13 "The Killer In Me" Willow must face her own demons after her first kiss with Kennedy has an unexpected, magical result. Buffy gets in touch with the government about Spike's chip, which is malfunctioning.

Another good episode, it was good seeing Willow deal with the death of Tara finally and move on with Kennedy. I mean I loved Willow and Tara but Kennedy is very sweet as well. She'll be good for Willow. And finally Spike gets that stupid chip taken out of his head. I didn't like Giles reaction to this news. Buffy did the right thing. I liked that Xander, Anya, Dawn and Andrew headed to the desert to capture Giles, who they think is the 1st evil.

And our final episode of the night S7 Ep 14 "First Date" Principal Wood asks Buffy out to dinner, to which she accepts partly because she likes him and partly because she is intrigued as to what he really is. Xander also agrees to go out at night with Lissa, a girl he meets at a tool demo somewhere in Sunnydale. Things go very differently for them. Buffy finds out Robin Wood is in fact the son of a Slayer, while Xander's date turns out to be a demon. Willow receives an SOS text message from Xander and she and Spike round up Buffy and Wood to rescue Xander. Wood finds out Spike is a vampire. Later, The First shows itself to Wood in the guise of his dead mother and tells him it was Spike who killed her.

Lots happen in this episode, the reveal of Principle Woods being the son of the New York Slayer and him finding out that Spike it the one that killed her.. bit stuff. Xander and he bad luck with women continue, I like that Andrew didn't let the 1st talk in into being bad again.. Andrew is really trying to be a "good guy".

We're more then halfway through this final season. I'm happy that it's almost over as we get to move on to something new but I'm also sad to see it end because it's BUFFY!!! I think our next series to watch is going to be Smallville, which I'm excited for as I only saw the first two and a half seasons.