San Diego Comic Con Day 2

Friday has begun, didn't get a good night sleep as our townhouse sits on 5th street which is the busiest street in the Gaslamp so the noise level was off the charts. But I was also excited for the con so that could also be contributed to my lack of sleep. Anyways Chris and I were up bright and early, 7am. I took a shower bath. It's a huge bath tube that sits about 3 feet high and you have to climb into it. It has one of those hand held shower type things so you can't really stand. Anyways took my shower bath and prepare to Hobbitfy myself. Chris was taking his shower bath so I headed down stairs to see who else was up. Lou was up and making himself some breakfast. I started experimenting with my two different make ups for my ears. The one I had last year was way to light, I have a lot of red in my face. So this year I purchased a bit redder and darker hoping I would get a better match. I also prepainted my ears so it would be easier and faster to put them on.

By this time Chris came down and assisted me on applying on my ears. He did a FANTASTIC job, he also did a little paint job on them to get them just right. They weren't quite the same color as my face but with the wig you would never know.. And they were a 1000 times better then last year so I was extremely happy.

After my ears Chris and I went up stairs to finish putting on our outfits. Chris was going in his very popular Altair outfit from Assassin's Creed. We both finished about 8:30 and were ready for con. We were starving so we headed down the street and found a subway. It was so hot in that place and with all the clothing we were wearing we were both dying.

We ate quickly and headed to the con. Got in around 9:30 and the floor was open. Today I really just planned to walk around in my cosplay and have pictures taken of me. There was a photo shoot for all of us dressed in Hobbit cosplay for TheOneRing.net. So Chris headed off to a panel while I meet up with Jes and Rachel. Jes was dressed as a Elf. At 11:30 we headed to the meeting place and had some group shoots taken of about 20 folks in Hobbit cosplay.. it was pretty great.

We met back up with Chris and ran into Dallas and Aaron who joined our group. We left con to grab some lunch. This is always an ordeal, we had a party of six and the first place we hit up with Syfy's Defiance Restaurant (formally known as Cafe Diem). But we had an hour wait and we were starving.. so we decided to find another place. Next was the Old Spaghetti factory. Now in all the years I have been coming to con I have never eaten here because the wait is always a few hours, so imagine my shock when I tell them that we have six and the hostess says, stand here and will seat you. Mind you that there are about 30 people standing and sitting around waiting for a table. Come to find out that one of there larger tables just opened and we were the largest party there. So we sat and had a nice pasta lunch.

After lunch the group split up and Chris and I headed back to he townhouse to relax for a few minutes. We headed back to the con and the showroom floor. I wanted to get some pictures of me with the Cave Trolls. After that Chris headed off to a panel and I roamed the floors alone. I took pictures of cosplayer and had pictures taken a me. About an our later I meet back up with Chris and we walked the floor a bit more before heading back to the townhouse to suit up for tonight's Wootstock.

Before Wootstock we headed out to get some dinner. We were cutting it close because Wootstock started at 7 and we sat down for dinner around 6:30 at The Hard Rock Cafe, which was right down the street from the theater (Wootstock).

I forgot to mention something that Chris and I were doing all day. Twitter persona @GeekyHooker made these cut knitted little figures and she was dropping them off in various places and then tweeting the location. Chris and I have been trying to get one all day but missing it by minutes each time. While we were eating dinner the one Chris really wanted (Batman) was dropped back at con. About six blocks from where we were. Well Chris in a full suit and dress shoes ran back to the townhouse to get his badge and then to the con only to miss getting it by mere seconds. By the time he got back to the restaurant he was exhausted and tired. We were already 15 minutes late for Wootstock and Jes and Olivia who had joined us for dinner left for the theater. I sat there and waited as he scarfed down his food trying to relax. We got to the theater around 7:25 and the show was already going. We found our seats and for the next four and a half hours we were entertained by a variety of people. From Paul and Storm, to Wil Wheaton, to Marian Call to Adam Savage taking about poop. For the most part it was a very entertaining show. This was my first Wootstock and it won't be my last.

After Wootstock it was 11:30pm and we headed over to the Geek and Sundry Disco Party. I had planned to just pop in and say hi to Felicia and the gang but once I got in and heard the music pumping all my weary and achy bones and feet left me and it was party time and we danced teh night away until around 1:45am.

Chris and I got home around 2am and crashed. We had to be up in six hours for the day three of con.

You can see all my Con pictures HERE 

Best Gift Ever!!!

Today when we were taking a break from the con my best bud Chris pulled out a bunch of dog tags and handed me a set. Earlier in the week he asked for some personal information and said he was creating something cool. Now I trust Chris with my life so I had no problem giving him some of my personal info, like SS #. Well he made us some official military dog tags. Depending on what info you gave him you got three to five dog tags. I got two with my personal info on it, one joke one (Frodo Baggins) and one with a personal message.

Now I love Chris, I have from the moment we met. There was this instant bond as if we've known each other all our lives. It so rarely happens and I've been fortunate enough to have it happen to me several times in the past few years. But when it comes down to it you never really know if the person feels the same way about you. But when Chris gave me that personal dog tag and I read the message he had wrote on it I knew that he felt the exact same way and my heart jumped for joy. He truly is my best friend and now that I have these dog tags he'll be close to my heart figuratively and literally. Thanks Chris for being AWESOME!!

San Diego Comic Con Day 1

Today is preview night at San Diego Comic Con. Jes and Rachel stayed the night so we could all car pool together. But first I had to finish up my MASH 4077 podcast. I had to upload and build the show notes and preset so it would be released on the 15th.

Around Noon we headed out to the John Wayne Airport to pick up my bestie Chris who was flying in for con. I have been so excited about seeing him as it's been several months. We got to the airport about a ten minute before he landed and waited by the baggage area. I was so excited that Jes and Rachel were making fun of me. I could barely sit still. When I caught site of him and jump up and immediately grabbed him brought him into a big bear hug. It's crazy how much you can miss someone, even though you talk to them daily via IM/phone.

We grabbed his bags and packed ourselves into Jes' car. Her car looks small on the outside but it's huge on the inside and we had that thing packed to the brim. Chris and I sat in the back seat and literally had to sit in each other's lap. It was cozy but I was with my best bud so I didn't mind. Several sticky hours later we made it to San Diego and to the townhouse. My friend Thomas was waiting for us with a parking pass to park across the street in the parking structure. We unloaded our bags and went our separate ways.. Jes and Rachel were heading to the Omni to their hotel room and Chris and I headed to the townhouse that we were sharing the six other people. We dumped stuff off in our room and then headed to the convention center to get our passes. It was around 6pm and the con floor just opened. We stood in what looked like a super long line for the professional tickets but it actually went very quickly and we had our tickets in about 15 minutes.

Every year the WB hands out these huge bags and this year there were Hobbit ones and I was so hoping that I would get one and I did. While we were getting tickets we ran into friends Brian, Brian and Leo. After we got out tickets we hit the floor. It was PACKED!! Since there were no panels everyone was on the floor. My goal was to get an exclusive Bilbo Hobbit figure from Bridge Direct. They were selling them at two different booths.. Gentle Giant and Entertainment Earth.  The first place Chris and I went to was Gentle Giant and there was a pretty long line so we decided to head over to Entertainment Earth. About halfway there we decided to split up, I would go back to Gentle Giant and get in line and he would see how long the line was at EE. When I got back to Gentle Giant booth the line wasn't that bad and about fifteen minutes later I had my exclusive Bilbo figure. Not only did I get mine I got two additional ones. There were no limits on how many you could buy and I knew that Jes wanted one (come to find out she got her own) but I'll be interested to see if they go up in value once the movie is out.

So my goal for Wednesday Preview night has been reached. Around 8ish we were tired from travels and it was so crowded on the con floor that we decided to go get some dinner (especially since we didn't eat lunch). So a small group of us went to this Irish pub (that we first thought was closed because no one was there), soon our group doubled in size and I had a great time hanging with my friends ( Chris, Jes, Anne, Dallas,  Luis, Aaron, Olivia, Rachelle and Rachel. As we were leaving Michele, Becca and Jeff showed up.

After dinner we said our goodbyes and Chris and I headed back to the townhouse to get some sleep. We were getting up early for the official first day of San Diego Comic Con 2012.... can't wait!!!

You can see all my Con pictures HERE

MASH, Work & Friends

Since I got home from work so late last night/early this morning I came into work a bit late but since I couldn't sleep and was up at 7am I decided to finish my next MASH 4077 Podcast, after a few hours I was done. So one less thing I have to worry about while at Comic Con.

Got into work around 11am and again it was a busy day. This was my last day before heading down to San Diego Comic Con. Everything was moving along nicely until around 5pm when catastrophe struck. The isis (hard drive that holds everything) slowly started to crash and soon went into meltdown mode.  I spent the next few hours hoping that it was an easy fix and that we didn't lose any information. I also had to get home because my friends Jes and Rachel were coming down from SF to crash at my place for SDCC the next day. So I left around 8pm and got on the road to go home, but noticed that I needed gas. I made my way to a local gas station when my post pa calls and says he's having trouble finding this person house where he is suppose to be dropping off a hard drive. While I'm talking to him my night AE calls me and is asking me questions about the isis, like password and such which I don't know. I try texting my lead AE but imessage decides to go down so no messages are being sent. I can't contact the person my post pa is trying to get to and I thought I was going to have a break down right there in the gas station parking lot.

Fifteen minutes later my post pa found the person's house and got the hard drive to him and my night AE called back and said that tech services are on the scene and the isis will be back up and running in no time with no lost media.

I got home around 9pm and my friends arrived around 11pm. We visited for a half hour (I actually got to meet Rachel for the first time.) We called it an night around midnight.. we have a big day of driving ahead of us... I also get to see my best friend Chris tomorrow afternoon and I'm so excited.. I'm sure I won't be able to sleep tonight.

Alien Nation: The Newcomers Podcast Ep. 7

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

Show Notes

Brothers Kenny and Michael Mittleider review and discuss a short lived but very socially aware TV series from the late 80's early 90's ALIEN NATION. Each podcast we will review a single episode in sequential order starting with the Pilot. Will give you our thoughts on the episode as well as some fun behind the scenes information.

Today we cover Season 1, Episode 7 - The Night Of The Screams

Directed by Gwen Arner
Written by Tom Chehak
Original air date October 30th, 1989

Plot Summary: Sikes and George are assigned to investigate a series of murders in which the victims were drugged into submission and their hands hacked off above the wrists, resulting in their bleeding to death. The duo find their suspect, an elderly newcomer whose target is the Overseers, and his purpose is to seek retribution for the atrocities performed on the slaves. George, while having been sworn to uphold the law, finds himself in the difficult position of agreeing with the man philosophically. Sikes decided to let George call the shots on this one.

Hope you enjoy it,
Kenny

Longest Work Day Ever!!!

Today has been one of the longest days I have worked in a long time. Started my day at 6am, got to work around 9am and the craziness begin. This was the final day of shooting on stage and since I was taking time off for comic con I had to stay until they were done shooting and since it was the last day, they ran long and finished around 11:30pm. I dropped off the tapes to the office at midnight and finally got home around 1:30am and to bed at 2am.

Cut & Curl... Hobbit Style

Got up today and laid out my entire Hobbit outfit. I wanted to make sure I had everything and that all was good go.

After that I spent most of the day editing several of my podcasts. Both my Alien Nation, which is due on July 10th and MASH 4077 which is due on July 15th. Both had to be done this weekend as I left for Comic Con on Wednesday I knew I wouldn't have any time to finish them. I struggled all day long forcing myself to get these two podcasts done. I manage to finish Alien Nation mid day and started working on MASH.

I got a text from my buddy Sebastian who was back from up north but I really wanted to talk to his girlfriend Amanda who is a hair stylist. I really needed someone to cut and curl my hobbit wig. Luckily she was free at night. Though I wasn't done with my MASH podcast I had to get this done so I headed over to their place.

Three hours later my Hobbit hair was cut and curled and looked great. The real human hair looks so much better then the synthetic hair. As a thank you I took Amanda and Sebastian out to dinner. We went to the Black Angus. After dinner I said my goodbye and headed back to my place getting home round 11pm. I had to be up early for work the next day but I really needed to get as much of my MASH podcast done as I could so I stayed up a few more hours working on it. Finally around 1am I called it a night but still had not finished my podcast.

Hobbit Wigs & Star Trek Pants

I got up today fairly early though I didn't get to bed until after 2am. I needed to find a new and better Hobbit wig as well as stock up on some new make up for my Hobbit ears. Like before I went to Namies down in North Hollywood (went to the same place last year).

First stop was the wig shop, last year I couldn't find anything there but this year I explained to the sales girl what I needed and to my surprise she was also going to comic con with her boyfriend who is a huge nerd. Anyways, we tried out a few things, unlike last year I was willing to pay more for real human hair. On our third try we manage to find a decent color looking wig, it was a bit longer but had some curls. We figured this one would be best to get and since it's real human hair we could treat it like real hair meaning it could be cleaned, cut and curled. The best part is that it was only $100 which is cheap for real human hair. And also since I'm a member of the PGA (Producer's Guild of America) and get a 10% discount..

After the wig shop I went over to the special effort store to buy some sponges, spirit gum and some new make up that matched my coloring more. After looking around for about 20 minutes I found everything I needed and checked out.

Now I have everything for my Hobbit outfit and I'm ready for con. Next stop was Target and Kohl's looking for black pants for my Star Trek outfit. But the trip was futile, I couldn't find any kind of black pants that weren't dress slacks. Since I already have black dress pants I didn't see any reason to get anymore.


Spent the rest of the day working on several of my podcasts.

Stuck in Santa Monica

After my bro-date with my buddy Robert I headed home.. it's something like 1am in the morning and I completely forget they are doing freeway work on the 405 in this area.. I spent the next hour driving around looking for an on ramp to the freeway.. sitting in long line of cars trying to get on the freeway. It was crazy. I worked all day then did dinner and a movie so I was up at 6am and it's now 1am of the following day and I was so tired... I just wanted to get home. As I mentioned I finally got on the freeway an hour later and home an hour after that... wasn't the best way to end the night and the only good thing is that I didn't have to get up at 7am the next morning for work as it's a Saturday. But this is my last weekend before comic con and I have so much stuff to do.

Bro-Date with Robert (Dinner & Brave)

Tonight after work I headed over to my bestie Robert. We planned to grab some dinner and then see Brave. I've been wanting to see this movie since it came out a few weeks ago but just haven't had the time.

Got to Century City Mall, which is where we were meeting. Found Robert up in the food court area and we grabbed some Panda Express. It was nice just sitting there having dinner and chatting with Robert. Though we chat via IM all day long everyday it's still nice to sit down face to face and talk.

After dinner we headed over to he AMC to watch Brave. Robert thought we wouldn't have an issue getting a good seat since the movie has been out for a few weeks.. but I knew better.. it was a Friday and Brave is a family film. I was right the place was packed but we did manage to get some decent seats in the middle but all the way over on the right side. I normally don't like sitting on the sides but with this theater it wasn't so bad.

Now for my review of "Brave"

First some details, Brave, set in the highlands of 10th century Scotland, a skilled archer named Merida defies an age-old custom, causing chaos in her kingdom. After consulting a witch for help, her family becomes cursed and Merida is forced to undo the spell herself before it is too late.

Let me say that this isn't my favorite Pixar movie but it's far from my least favorite. I love the setting and cinematography is incredible. The scenery is just BEAUTIFUL!!! I'm a huge fan of the whole Celtic/Scottish culture. This is a really good mother / daughter story. But not being a mother or a daughter I could still identify with the main character. I loved Merida's spunkiness and attitude. Her father and brothers were fantastic and were defiantly the comedy relief of the movie.  Over all I'd give this movie a B

Bilbo Exclusive

Today I got word that Bridge Direct will be producing The Hobbit figures... YAY!!!! I haven't been actively collecting figures for years but The Hobbit is going to get me back into it. And to top it off, there is going to be an exclusive figure, "Invisible Bilbo", that will only be available at San Diego Comic Con. It's going to be available at two booth Gentle Giant and Entertainment Earth. My new goal for SDCC is to be there Wednesday night for preview night and get me my exclusive Hobbit figure.

Settling In To The New Job

Three weeks in and I'm starting to settle in to the new gig. They are in the middle of shooting episodes for the new series I'm working on. I've been to set a few days and it looks pretty great. Things here in post are moving along nicely.. nothing too crazy.. yet. I'm liking my co-workers which is always a big plus. My boss is great and I have one of the best AE's that I've ever had. I know I can leave things in her hands and not worry that something will go wrong.. I had that at my last job and it helps so much.

Besides work stuff.. I'm getting things ready for SDCC this year. It just hit me today that I still have my hotel booking that I did last year. But since I'm staying at the Guildie townhouse I need to cancel it. Only took a few minutes but my reservation has been cancelled. Can't wait to Comic Con this year.

4th of July with Family

Didn't really have any plans for the fourth of July, I did get the day off from work, which was nice. But I did get a call from my mom a few days ago letting me know that she was going to have a BBQ and watch the boat show. Since I didn't have anything to do and I haven't seen my mom in months, figure it was a good time to visit.

The morning got off to a rocky start as my stomach wasn't doing so hot and I wanted to leave by 9am in order to get to my mom's by 11am.. well I didn't get out to the door until 10:30ish. Luckily there was no traffic for 2/3's of the trip and I did mange to get to my mom's around 12:15pm.

Also joining the BBQ besides my Mom and Chuck, were my brother Michael, sister-in-law Lora, nephew Kenobi, and niece Molly. My aunt Joyce, uncle Marty, cousin Matt and his friend Chris. Also my Grandma.

We had a nice BBQ, watched the cool boat parade in the harbor and there was this cool guy with one of those awesome rocket water jet packs so he was floating above the water.. it was pretty cool. Lora took some video and posted it to Facebook.. you can see it HERE. Also several of the family members when out boating on the water. We spent the last four hours playing Cards Against Humanity. Played with my brother, sister-in-law, aunt, uncle, cousin and his friend. This was all of their first time and they all seemed to love it. I wasn't sure how some of the cards would go over but everyone laughed so much and we all had a great time.

We all called it a night around 6ish and I got back on the road. I haven't gone food shopping in two weeks since I've been putting in alot of hour with this new job but I had no more food in the house so I stopped by the store to pick up some yummies before heading home. I got home around 8:30pm, was going to try and do some editing of some podcasts but instead I ate dinner and just watched TV for an hour before calling it a night and hitting the hay.

All in all it was a fun Fourth of July (though I didn't actually see any Fireworks)

San Diego Comic Con Panel Schedule

Every year I got though all the SDCC scheduling and create an excel sheet with all the panels/shows I would like to see during the con. The past few years I have created this chart but never attend anything that I have planned. Normally because there are super long lines and take hours to get through and you might make it into your panel. Doing panels these days require you to do nothing but stand in line all day. My time at comic con is valuable, yes I would love to see the stars and listen to the panels but seeing friends and dressing up is more important to me now.

But regardless I created another excel sheet that I will more then likely not follow. There are few panels that I'm going to do my best to get in, but again it the wait to over three hours I won't sacrifice my time for the panel.

Setting Up My Office

Well I don't actually have an office (first time being without one) but I do have a desk in a cubical so me being the geek that I am..  I had to geekify my desk so I brought a few things from home. Mostly action figures that I had opened. Angel of Death from Hellboy 2, some TNG figures, Harry Potter, Sauron from LOTR, a Yoda quote (plaque), Cylon, a Tribble (with sound), a few cool looking Borgs and of course Star Wars figures.

I also put up some pictures of friends and family to keep me company. When you come to my desk you know a geeky occupies it.. and it's just the way I like it.

Who-Coincidence

Like I mentioned yesterday in my blog.. I came across these tissue boxes with letters on them, while at Target in Riverside. Someone spelled out "Doctor Who" and I took a picture and posted on Twitter.

My buddy Adam replied with a comment "Are you at the Target in San Jose" because another friend of his posted a picture of the same tissue boxes with letters on them but this time they spelled out "Bad Wolf" which, if you're a Who fan know that plays a significant role in the early seasons of Who.

What are odds that two different people living a few hundred miles always from each other happen to spell out Doctor Who/Bad Wolf out of tissue boxes at Target. Just a cool coincidence or is the Doctor trying to tell us something....

Family, Podcast & An Unexpected Bestie

Today I headed over to my family's place out in Riverside. The main reason was to record some Alien Nation podcasts with my brother as this would be the only time I'd be able to do that and one is due to be released on the 10th. But on this trip I also got to have lunch with my Dad and spend some quality time with my nephew Kenobi. My niece Molly is still too little to do much but I enjoy getting to see her. I also enjoy chatting with my sister-in-law Lora.

My brother's family recently moved to a new house along with dad. For lunch my dad and I went to a new Chinese place hoping the food would be as good as my favorite Chinese food place in Corona. It was not, it's wasn't bad but it wasn't anywhere near as yummy as Hong Kong. Afterwards my dad needed some things from Target so we went shopping. While at Target I saw these tissue boxes with letters on the side of them and I was surprised to see that someone spelled out Doctor Who with them. Of course me being a geek I had to take a picture and post it for all to see.

Got back to my brothers and he and I started our viewing of Alien Nation. We usually watch an episode and then record the podcast while it's fresh in our minds. I was hoping to get three podcasts recorded but because of family and other factors we were only able to record two. These two podcasts, I felt, were some of our best, great episodes which lead to great discussions.

After podcasting he and I went out to El Pollo Loco to grab dinner for everyone. After eating I headed for home.

While driving home I got a text from my bestie Josh asking if I was working. I said no just on my way home from visiting family. He mentioned that he was just getting out of Magic Mountain and said it would be weird not to stop by and see me since he's never this close to where I live. I told him I was about a half hour away from my place and that I would meet him there. He was about 10 minutes ahead of me but we got to my place around 11ish. We both had to work the next morning but it had been a while since we just hung out and we both missed each other very much. We hung out and chatted until about 2am. He found out that he didn't need to be to work until 11am and since I was working late that night I could go in later as well. So we didn't mind staying up late and enjoying each others company. It was a great way to end a really fun and productive day.

Friends and Musicals

So last night I saw Fellowship! The Musical and tonight I'm going to see Geeks! The Musical. Several friends who went with me last night to see Fellowship actually came back to my place to crash since they live in south in San Diego. Also Anne who was out here for a wedding crashed at my place because we were all going to see Geeks! tonight.

When I got up everyone was already up and ready for some breakfast. Anne made some eggs, I made the sausage and Nicki made some bagels. After lunch we decided to go for a hike. Both Nicki and Anne though they have been to my weekend parties they never stay long enough to go hiking... so today we were going to change that and go hiking at Vasquez Rocks. It was hot but super bad, it was also fairly early still. We had a great hike and it was fun showing two new people Vasquez.

After Vasquez we went back to my place to play some Cards Against Humanity. If you don't know this game it's a brand new and very awesome card game. We played for a few hours before we started to get hungry so we headed out to Chili's for some lunch. When we got back we still had a few more hours before the play so we continued our game of Cards Against Humanity. In the end Anne won, which makes her the worse human on the planet. :)

We got ready for the musical and headed down to Hollywood. Traffic is always funky, sometimes it takes a really long time and sometimes it takes no time at all. This was the latter as we got to the theater almost forty five minutes early. We hung out and chatted before the box office opened. We got into the theater about 7:20pm and got center, center seats.

I had seen the plan on it's first run a month or so back and really enjoyed it. This time around they have a few different actors and they tweaks the pacing and the movement of some of the songs. So it really did feel like I was watching a different play. And as I did before I really enjoyed it. As did Aaron, Anne and Nicki.

After the play we opted to try and find a place to eat but it was a Saturday night and traffic/parking was horrible so we called it a night. Anne and Nicki headed south back home while Aaron and I headed back to my place as he was going to stay the night again.

It was a fun day of friends, adventures and music.

Fellowship! The Musical

First what is Fellowship! It’s a hilarious musical parody of The Fellowship of the Ring, the first volume of J.R.R. Tolkien's classic Lord of the Rings.
 I've wanted to see this musical for over six years.. since the first time I heard about it. And for one reason or another I've missed it. Well this time I was not going to miss it. I planned a group viewing a few months back and have had this marked on my calendar since then. I got to see the final play for this run. It was an 11pm show and the place was packed.

Joining me for this fun adventure was my bestie and fellow LOTR fanatic Josh, Nicki, Aaron, CJ and his friend. As I mentioned I got to the theater at 10:30 and Nicki was already there and we got in line. Right before they let us in CJ and his friend and Aaron arrived and joined us in line. We got decent seats about five rows from the front and in the middle. I was saving a seat for Josh, as he still hadn't arrived. 11pm came and went and still no sign from Josh. I had to give up his saved seat. Of course moments after I gave it up I get a text that he's parking. He came over to us with a sad face and I noticed that there was a seat in our same row at the very end. He asked the two guys who were sitting next to it if it was taken and they were kind enough to actually move down so Josh could sit in the seat next to me. The play started around 11:15.

As for the play.. from the opening song to the final number I was smiling from ear to ear. The music and songs are catchy, the acting incredible, the story fantastic and the interaction priceless. This was the last show and you could tell they were going to have fun with this one. Because they are all great improvers it was hard to tell what was actually suppose to happen or if they were making it up as they went along. You could tell these guys loved doing this play. It was one of the funniest shows I have seen in a long time. It was well worth the wait and I can't wait for it's to do another run so I can see it a few more times. I purchased a t-shirt and CD to help support them

Everyone in my group loved the play, afterwards several of us stayed after to talk to the cast and get pictures. The actors were very friendly and appreciative of their fans. They signed autographs and took pictures until ever person go what they wanted. You knew they were tired after doing two shows in a row and it was now past 2am but they stayed and had so much energy.. it was a pretty incredible experience.

As I was driving home I listened to the entire CD twice and sang along. It was a great way to end my evening.

Another Busy Day

Today was another busy day... it was the actual first day of shooting of the new TV series I'm working on. I was on set for some of the day.  Since I'm post I never really get to be on set during production but because post is slow and we want to make sure they are orgainizing and labeling all the tapes properly my boss wants me on set. Only issue with this is the shoot goes until 9pm and I'm seeing a play at 11pm in Hollywood.

So 9pm came and went and they were still filming.. I started to worry, I knew that if I didn't leave by 10pm that I wouldn't make it to Hollywood in time. My boss showed up around 9:15 to set and I was very happy to see him because if I had to leave he could stay and get the tapes in my place. Well after "playing" around with me, he kept saying that I'd have to stay.. he let me go around 9:45.

I made my way through Los Angeles and Hollywood and got to the theater around 10:30. I'll talk about the play in my next blog.

Needless to say my work days are getting busier.

Goodies in the Mail

Today when I got home I had several cool packages waiting for me. One was this print of a male fairy that I've admired for a few years. I've been on the search for a nice male fairy picture to frame but just couldn't find one that I liked.. the one I found is called Acorn and I found a decent size one 11x17. Can't wait to frame it.

The second was my halfling ears for the Hobbit costume for SDCC. My previous ears were a one time use but I've used them six or seven times but didn't want to take any more chances with them.. so I bought 3 sets of unpainted ears.

The third and fourth things were two large boxes, one with some controllers and cords and the other is an Xbox gaming console (well I have to sign for the package so it's at the post office and I'll pick it up on Saturday) My besties Chris got a new R2D2 Xbox and gave me his older one. I can't wait to hook it and my kinect up and buy some cool games as well as some workout games.

It was a good week for goodies in the mail.

Running Around

Today was a pretty crazy workday. They were doing rehearsal for tomorrows shot day. I went to set to meet the camera folks since they will be the ones shooting the show and dealing with post the most. I won't bore you with the details but I went back and fourth six times taking things over to them and them not working and having to fix them, we tested footage to see if we could import into the avid. Finally on my final run over there I had planned to leave from there to head home, as it was 7pm. I got to set, gave them a fixed hard drive and then went back to my jeep. I got an email from one of the EP's (Executive Producer) on the show. He asked if I was still on set. I turned back around and headed back in. After walk around for 10 minutes I finally found the control room and the EP. He had questions about green screen, I haven't worked alot with green screens but I did my best to answer his questions. 45 minutes later I'm back in my jeep and heading home.

Tonight after work I was suppose to originally hang out with my cousin who I haven't seen in over 20 years, he was in CA for work and up near my area. Well those plans fell through and I had a back up plan. I was suppose to go the movies with Robert and Rupert to see Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter. But even before my workday was extended I decided that I didn't want to go out.

Every night this week I have done something with friends. Don't get me wrong I LOVE doing stuff with my friends but normally I get up at 7am, go to work from 8am to 7pm, then hang with friends until 10ish, get home around 11:30 and bed by midnight and the day starts all over again. Tonight I wanted to get home at a decent time and just relax, which is just what I did. It was a nice relaxing night. Watched a bit a TV and called it a night around 10:30.

Work, Friends & Tribute

Today went by very quickly,  productions offices (where my temp off is) are closing down. They are starting to shot at the end of the week and everyone in production is moving over to the shooting location. This means I'll have to find another home until post is up and running (Tuesday of next week). So I spent the day prepping tape labels and camera logs for the upcoming shoot, emails galore getting production on the same page as post. Lot's of prep work that will hopefully help when we start getting footage on the back end.

After work like I have all week I went to a friends to hang out. Tonight I visited Sebastian and his girlfriend Amanda. I had planned to run over to Del Taco and grab some dinner but when I got to their place Amanda had made some spaghetti and italian sausage for dinner so I join them.

One of my favorite writers/director and all around creative person Nora Ephron passed away yesterday. So in honor of her we watched one of my top 5 favorite romantic comedies "Sleepless in Seattle". It was a great way to honor this great woman.

Geek Mecca

In two weeks I'll be with 150,000 other geeks celebrating our uniqueness and love for all things geeky. This will be my ninth year attending San Diego Comic Con. I watched it grow from 40,000 to 150,000. When I first started going I could get into all the panels and get all the swag. Now I'm lucky if I can get into any panels as I don't want to wait in line for hours to get in. I also use to get tons of cool swag, but again now you have to be in lines for hours to get anything.

Honestly my reasons for going have changed over the years. I did go early on to see the panels and the stars. But now it's more about hanging out with "online" and real life friends. Last year I cos played for the first time and totally fell in love with it and I'm really looking forward to doing it again this year. Besides my Hobbit outfit, a group of us will be dressing up in our Star Trek outfits and hitting the floor.

Another big event (at least for me) is seeing and hanging with one of my best friends.. Chris. I haven't seen him in a few months and miss him like crazy. I'm really looking forward to spending five days with him and the rest of my Geek Mob geeking out.

Buffy & Bros Continue...

Another quiet day at work, other then a few emails and such nothing much to report from there. I was more excited about the evening. I was getting together with one of my best friends Robert and continuing our Buffy viewing party. This is his first time, but a rewatch for me. We normally watch a 3 or 4 episodes but tonight we only did 2 episodes and wound up talking alot. We did season 1 episode 7 titled "Angel" and season 1 episode 8 titled "I Robot, You Jane", I really enjoyed both of these episodes.. one explains more about Angel and who he is and the other introduces Ms. Calendar. It's always great hanging with Robert want watching TV/movies but I really enjoy having our long conversations.

The only downside to the evening was coming home and the construction happening on the 14 freeway and it took me about 30 minutes to go 2 miles. Normally I'm okay with this but when your extremely tired it's not a good thing, but I did manage to get home by midnight.

Monday, Monday

So I start my second week at this new gig, things are moving along, they actually start shooting towards the end of the week so things will start to pick up when we start getting footage. So I pretty much worked on setting up post, emailed a few crew members and over just all still preparing for post.

One thing I was looking forward to was my dinner with my bestie Will. I haven't seen him in a few weeks and was really missing him. We planned to meet up at his place and then go to a local spot near his place called Pitfire Grill. We then spent the next hour and a half catching up on each other life and just enjoying one's company. I did cut it short at 10pm as I still had an hour drive home and now that I'm working I tend to go to bed around 11:30. It was a great visit and I hope we get to hang out again soon.

Disneyland... NOT!!

I had plans to attend Disneyland to celebrate my friend Jessica's birthday today but with my dislocated finger and waking up not feeling so hot (stomach issues) I decided to not make the two hour trek to the happiest place on Earth. Instead I planned to try and get more things done around the house.

That didn't quite go as planned, between trips to the bathroom and resting on my recliner watching TV I did manage to get some housekeepig done for my Geekyfanboy Productions podcast company. Built excel sheets, combined all podcast into one form. I caught up with my blog posting and cleaned up some of my computer craziness.

A big part of my day was sitting at my computer and watching some new programs/webseries on The Nerdist Channel. I've watched alot of stuff on Felicia Day's you tube channel Geek and Sundry, but this was the first time watching another you tube channel and I have to say I really enjoyed it. I watched All Star Celebrity Bowling, Magic Meltdown and Just Cos, all were very fun and entertaining but my favorite was the bowling.

The other big thing that I accomplished was editing the very first episode of My Gimpy Life Podcast. It's episode 0 and just an introduction to what to expect from the companioncast. Don't know when I'll be posting it but it will be posted a few weeks before the first episode (at least that's the plan).

So it would have been great to go to Disneyland and hang out with friends I did have a fairly productive day today.

Breakfast, Yard Work & Podcasts... Oh My!!

Today is my first weekend off since I started working again. I have a ton of things to do. First up was breakfast with my friend Tanya. She and I met a few years ago at San Diego Comic Con and really hit it off. Since she lived down in San Diego and worked for NASA I didn't get to see her much but she is moving to Canada to start schooling so I wanted to make sure I got to see her one last time. She also was downsizing for her move and had a bunch of Star Trek stuff that she was getting rid of and asked me if I wanted it (she wanted to give it to a good home).

We meet up for breakfast down in Pasadena (she was working at JPL) and we updated each other on our lives. She then gave me a box and bag full of cool Star Trek stuff. The stuff will fit in nicely with my collection.

After breakfast I came home, watched a bit a TV but really tried to motivate myself to get outside and so some much needed yard work. I did manage to get out there for an hour and pull weeds on the side of my driveway. But it was hot and it's tough pulling weeds with one good hand (my left still sore from the dislocated finger).

I came in and forced myself to start editing my next MASH Podcast. It's due next weekend and I knew that this would be the only time I had to get it done. I struggled on and off all day long to get it done, but by midnight it was finished and ready to be uploaded.

Between editing my podcast I watched TV, cleaned around the house and other little things. I felt like I had so much to do but really only got a little done.. guess there is always tomorrow.

First Week of Work

Well I finished my first week at my new job. It's just getting started so it's not super busy at the moment. I spent most of my days working on a post schedule and just trying to get the lay of the land. What got to me more was the hours. I have been tired all week, though I'm getting 7 to 8 hours of sleep a night. And that's pretty much all I'm doing. I get up at 7am, leave my house around 8ish and get to work a bit before 10am. I work until 7pm and get home a bit after 8. I have dinner and by that time I'm tired and hit the bedroom around 10ish, watch an episode of The Simpsons (which I do every night) and normally fall asleep before the episode is done. I did hang out with my buddy Sebastian on Tuesday for a few hours after work and with Robert on Thursday, but man I'm tired when I get home.

Being out of work for nine months has really taken it's toll on me. I knew it would take me a while to get back into the swing of things but with all my extra circular activities (podcasts) I don't know where I'm going to find time to get everything done. I'm sure I'll get into a routine but as of this moment I don't see that happening anytime soon.

Dinner with Friends

After work today I headed over to my friends Sebastian and Amanda place. I had some good news for Sebastian and I wanted to deliver it to him in person. After Sebastian's six months of no work, I was able to offer him a job as my post PA, it will be his very first "industry" job, which is the main reason why he moved down here to begin with.

Of course he accepted and we went out to dinner to celebrate at Black Angus.

I love when I'm able to give opportunities to up and coming entertainment people and it's even better when they are a friend. Gonna have lots of fun working side by side with a friend.  It was a nice way to end my work week.

Hiding Your Geekiness

Recently I've had some conversations with friends and was surprised to hear that many of them feel the need to hide their geekiness or not expose how geeky they truly are. This really surprised me, as I have never really been one to hide my geekiness. In fact I think I'm the complete opposite, I wear my geekiness like a badge of honor. I mean if someone doesn't like you because you're a geek or like certain things then that person is not worthy of your friendship.

An example, I meet someone at my new job who is an uber geek, especially for Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter. Needless to say that we hit if off and talked geek for over an hour straight. When we finished he said.. "man we are nerds!!", kind of in a derogatory way. I asked him if our conversation made him uncomfortable and he said he's never had a conversation like that before. I told him I have conversations like that with my friends everyday and he was surprised.

Another example, I have a friend who was married for many years, now divorced. But we got to talking recently and he mentioned how geeky he truly is now. When he was married, though still a geek, he didn't explore all the avenues of being a geek. He hide part of himself, or maybe he didn't know how strong that geeky part was, regardless he wasn't allowing himself to be his true geeky self.

So my question to all my blog readers.. do you hide your geekiness, if so.. why?

Buffy and Bros

Today after work I headed over to Robert's place to continue our Buffy viewing. This is a rewatch for me but the first time for Robert. Got to his place around 7:30 followed shortly by pizza and wings.

Up first was season 1, episode 4 "Teacher's Pet", Buffy's biology teacher is killed by a giant praying mantis that assumes the form of a beautiful substitute teacher.

Next up was season 1, episode 5 "Never Kill A Boyfriend On The First Date", While Buffy awaits the arrival of a warrior vampire, she dates a boy who is attracted to her exciting lifestyle.

And our final episode of the night was season 1, episode 6 "The Pack", Xander and several other students are possessed by the spirit of a demonic breed of hyenas that wreak havoc at the high school.

Out of those three my favorite was "Never Kill A Boyfriend On The First Date" I enjoyed Buffy trying to be a "normal" teenage girl and at the end realizes that she isn't.

Had a great time hanging with Robert and now that I work over on that end of town will be doing this more ofter... maybe we can get through Buffy faster then 11 months.

Moving Offices

Today I got word that I will be changing offices.. not only offices but locations. For reasons I can't reveal, post for this show will now be happening at a new location. It adds an additional 15/20 minutes to my commute and I no longer have an office, which is a bummer. But it does take me within a mile of one of my besties work place, which means will get to do lots of lunches together.

In the end it's best for the show and that's the important part. Not sure when I'll be going over but I suspect by the end of the week.. I'll keep you all updated.

Update!!

Well two things I wanted to update you guys on.. first of all my finger is still sore, my knuckle swelling is starting to go down. I keep it wrapped the majority of the time, but occasionally I'll take it out and move it round. It's funny but I've had issues with that same finger when I was a kid and dislocated all eight of my fingers at once (long and painful story). Anyways even when this fully heals there is going to be damage to this hand, it's not going to be horrible (disfigured) but some mobility will be loss.

Second thing I wanted to update you guys on is my new gig. But honestly there isn't much to update  you on. I've been working on the post schedule the past few days. I was suppose to be setting up edit bays and offices but they are currently occupied by another company, so that will have to wait. Start up time for a show is always slow, but this one seems to be a little slower then normal.. oh well it's a job and I'm thankful for that.

Once again traffic wasn't that bad, it's taking me about an hour and 15 to get here and to get home. Now I know that sounds like alot to some of you.. but my normal commute from my place to Santa Monica is just under two hours.. so yay!!

Hanging with my Bud

Today my buddy Sebastian asked if I wanted to stop by his place on my way home from work and hang out. I was tired and he doesn't live exactly on my way home but he needed some company and to be honest I think I needed company as well. So after work I headed over to his place. Once again the traffic wasn't that bad.. took maybe 45 minutes to get to Burbank. Got to his place and we walked to Del Taco so I could get some dinner. Went back to his place and I watched a short film that he had written, produced and directed. It still needed a few audio tweaks but it was very well done. After that we just talk and laughed for the next few hours. It was great just getting to relax and hang with a friend. I got home around 11pm and fell asleep just before midnight.

Do You Act Your Age??

You hear it all the time "Why don't you act your age", and it got me thinking, have I ever acted my age? The answer would have to be no. I was your typical kid, up to age 10 or so and then something changed. Both of my parents worked so I had to take care of my younger brother so in a sense I became a parent. I've always been mature for my age, wise beyond his years they use to say or you're such an old soul. I've always been responsible and never partied or did anything illegal when I was younger. At age 16 I was ready to get married and settle down with a family, of course my life took a different turn and maybe that is why I never really acted like a kid. Being in the closet for so many years and not really being the person I was born to be kept me reserved and shy. I struggled for so many years with my sexuality that when I finally came out at 27 I still had that reserved older then I was attitude. A lot of gay men upon coming out go crazy, I did not. I was still in the mindset of finding that one person and settling down for the rest of my life with them. Of course that never happened and now that I'm 41 I'm not sure if it ever will.

But I have noticed in the past year about the time I turned 40 I've been having a lot more fun, drinking/partying more and trying to be a bit more social. Might have to do with the friends I hang out with now, who are all in the mid 20's to early 30's. They say you are only as old as you feel and there are days that I feel 80 but most of the time I feel like I'm in my 20's

And of course being geek has kept me young at heart. From my collecting of action figures to loving scifi and fantasy TV and movies, It shaped who I am and who I want to be. I will always be a geek until the day I die and I'm extremely happy with that thought.

In the end AGE is just a number, what is more important is how you lived your life. And right now life is pretty good.

First Day on The Job

Got up early around 6am, didn't need to be up until 7:30am but I couldn't sleep. I'm not sure if it was nerves or excitement for my new job. If you haven't been following my work woes, I've been out of work going on nine months. I interviewed for a job about a month ago and thought I nailed it but there was someone who had a more impressive resume so they went with him. Flash forward four days ago and I get a call from this same employer asking me if I had gotten a job yet because the person they hired didn't work out. I couldn't believe my luck, I said I was free and they made me an "offer". I accepted it and now have a job for the next ten weeks.

Traffic wasn't that bad and by not that bad it took me an hour and a half to get here this morning. I've had commute up to 2 and a half hours when traffic is really bad.. so this wasn't horrible.

I first had to go to the main office to meet with the EP's, fill out my start paperwork and such before heading over to where they will be doing post (about a mile or so away for their office). When looking at the post edit schedule I noticed that this gig ran until the end of October, much longer then 10 weeks.. if fact it's almost doubled with 19 weeks. Needless to say that this makes me extremely happy.

After spending the morning over there I headed to Lot 5 where we will be doing post. The facility is really nice, got a tour of the place and they showed me where my offices and edit bays will be, currently occupied by Nickelodeon. They are moving out at the end of this week, but that's cool since I'm the only person in post this week. So I have a temp office, which may wind up being my actual office.. but I'm hoping for a windowed room.

This place has a really nice "break" room. besides the soda and snacks they have a very nice lounge area with a big screen TV as well as a pool table and stand up Arcade game with over 120 old school games.

The rest of the day I read through documents for the network show specs, got my new macbook laptop an set that up. Had a meeting with my Post Producer and facilities manager. Just kind of got a feel for whats coming.

Got off a little pass 7pm and made my way home, again I have been in traffic that has taken me a few hours to get home but like this morning, I got home in an hour and ten minutes. There wasn't a single break light the entire time.. yes there were tons of cars but everything was moving.

This show will have some challenges, as most shows do. We're not doing online here so that's one thing I don't have to worry about, which is nice. Right now things are moving fast but start up of a new project is always a struggle but once things are flowing I think it should be a pretty fun gig.

The Day After

Well today is my last day before I start my new job and I had tons of things I wanted to do. Well now that I have a bad finger it prevents me from doing alot of those things and the stuff I can do it makes me move alot slower. The side of my hand has swollen up and I plan to go out and get some proper wrap for my finger. There isn't much pain as long as I don't try and move to much. It's gonna take time for it to heal properly.

It's Father's Day, I did wish my Dad a Happy Father's Day yesterday when I was hanging out with him at Kenobi's birthday party. I told him the next time I'm down I'll take him out to lunch for Father's Day.

First thing I did was shave off my beard. I had planned to keep it around until the middle of July when I knew I would have to shave it off SDCC as I was cosplaying as a Hobbit and Hobbits don't have beards. But I decided to get rid of it early because of this new job. The beard wasn't growing in like I had hopped and was really crazy and wild looking.. so it had to go.

It's funny seeing me clean shaven, I have been this way since last comic con and after the con it quickly grew back. I like the beard to several reasons.. it hides my second chin :) but more importantly I'm lazy and it's so much easier to get up in the morning and not shave.

I did a few things around the house, ran some errands and caught up on some TV (Finally caught up on Lost Girl) soooooo gooood.

I recorded and edited a new episode of Knights of the Guild and got that posted and in the evening I had a skype call with Charles and recorded episode 0 of my new podcast The Geek Roundtable, this episode is just an introduction of the hosts and what we hope to accomplish with this podcast. It will be out soon.

I didn't get everything I wanted to get done but still a very productive day.. going to bed early as I need to get up early in order to get to work at 10. I'm not really that nervous about the new job, we see how I feel tomorrow.

Knights of the Guild Ep 41

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

 

Episode #41 features part two of my interview with Costume Designer / Wardrobe,  Kristen Ingram. We talk all about Season Five

 

Enjoy,

~Kenny~

 

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