Refrigerators, Siri and Getting Hit By A Car

Start my day with driving around to various stores checking out prices for a new refrigerator. I checked fridges out at Fry's, Home Depot, Lowes and Best Buy. I had forgotten how expensive refrigerators can be. Prices for a 14 to 16 cubic feet fridge range from $400 to $600. What makes this worse is that I have a large fridge that cost me over $1500 that is working perfectly fine but because I can't get it up to the apartment means I can't use it and must get rid of it.

I didn't purchase a fridge today as I had gotten several texts from friends who either have extra fridges or are thinking of swapping with me. So I'm currently on hold when it comes to buying a fridge.

While I was at Fry's I saw this automatic key making machine. I had never seen anything like this but it's crazy cool and fast. All you do is slip your key in the slot and the machine does the rest. And for $1.99 you have a brand new key. I got two sets made of my apartment keys, one for Lydia (my international roommate) and the other for my buddy Robert (just in case I die in my apartment).

After my refrigerator search I headed back home and continued my unpacking.

Just a side note.. I never knew you could change Siri's voice from female to male. So I changed mine to male. I also heard you can add an accent.. will have to look into that.

After my skype chat with Erik, I went for a walk to pick up some dinner. It's one thing I really love about living in this new apartment, that I'm able to walk to pretty much anywhere. While I was heading back home and about a block away I was hit by a car. What happen is I was crossing a street and I saw the VW bug coming down the street in the opposite direction. I got about 2/3's of the way into the street when all of sudden this guy decides to turn right... directly in front of me. He didn't slow down or anything. I looked directly into his face as he was about to hit me head on but he swerved and kind of fish tailed a little bit and the back end of his car smack into me knocking me to the ground.

It all happen so fast you really don't have time to think about anything. All I remember is that I was lying on the asphalt and thinking to myself.. I was just hit by a car. Of course the guy didn't stop and just continued down the road. I got to my feet and got out of the middle of the road before checking to see if I had any broken bones or scrapes of anything like that. I'm happy to report that there was nothing... I was lucky. If he would have hit me head on I don't think I would still be here as he was moving pretty fast when he took the corner. I'm lucky that he actually saw me at the last minute and swerved to avoid me and only got nicked by the back end of his car.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D Goodness

Nothing really new to blog about today.. I continue to unpack and organize my new apartment, it's a slow process but at least it's moving forward.

I had planned to start running around the park today but just wasn't feeling motivated. I know I need to get back into some sort of workout routine. And having this park right outside my front door I don't have an excuse not to get out there and at least walk around it.

I think the frustration of unpacking has really put me into a blah kind of mood lately. My only bright spots are my long talks with Erik everynight.

I did watch the latest two episodes of Marvels Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.  I had fallen behind because of the move and no cable. This series continue to impress, I know alot of people including some friends dislike this series and I honestly don't get it. I have loved every episode and the characters continue to grow on me. May and Coulson are still my favorites but I'm loving Simmons and Fitts and even warming up to Ward and Skye. And after this latest episode with the origin of Skye (well some of it), it really pushed her character up on my list of getting to know better. Can't wait to find out more about who and what she is. And of course we got some answers with the whole Coulson brought back to life thing. Not sure I 100% understand it or they gave us everything but I'm glad we're getting answers with new questions.

This series continues to be my favorite of the new TV season and I can't wait each week to see where it goes next.

Guest Room & Fantasy Animals

After breakfast I headed home and continued to work on unpacking boxes. My buddy Thomas is coming to stay with me this weekend so my priority was to get my guest bed built. Again like my master bed this should have been put together by two people but I struggled by myself and managed to only bust off one bolt but it's together and ready for guests.

While I was unpacking a large stack of my toy bins decided to rebel and fell on top of me. I was knocked to ground but other then a sore shoulder I was pretty much unscathed.

I came across a Facebook post about this adorable and realistic looking "fantasy" animals that this Russian woman is making and selling online. You can check out all of her animals HERE. Some of them are extremely cute and others not so much. The picture I posted here is one of my favorites. I'd love to order one but I heard they are extremely expensive and she is working on a huge amount of back orders already. Who know maybe someone will buy her out and start mass producing them and in turn lower the price and I can pick one up... here's hoping she "sells out". :)

Bad At Flirting

I went out to breakfast today to my local diner (Noho Diner). While I was there, there was this guy at the counter eating. I sat down at a small table to his right. I noticed him looking over at me and smiling several times. Was he flirting with me or just being nice since we both looked up at the same time and our eyes met. Of course I didn't smile back and instead sheepishly looked away like I didn't see him. This happens more often then not and It got me thinking.. I'm really bad a flirting or recognizing if I'm being flirted with.

But I think that it's difficult to flirt when you are gay. The majority of gay men aren't obvious, it's not like we have a symbol or a certain look that would signify that we are homosexuals, so you really don't know which guys are gay and which are straight. If I think a guy is flirting with me I ask myself are they flirting with me or just being nice "straight" guys, and the last thing you want to do is make a straight guy uncomfortable or a fool out of yourself or even worse yet get the crap beaten out of you for assuming.

This is probably why I don't really "pick up" anyone and tend to lean more towards online dating (when I dated). But I have been assured recently that I actually do know how to flirt, which made me happy to hear but I think that's mainly because I know the guy I'm flirting with is gay. But strangers that's a complete different story.

Unpacking Frustration!!

The past few days I have been struggling with unpacking stuff. I was hoping my trip to Disneyland this week would help get me focused again but today was a good example of the struggle that I am having. I am overwhelmed with the amount of stuff I have. I know eventually I'll find a place for everything but for right now I don't see that light at the end of the tunnel and that makes it hard to continue to unpack.

My usual day starts with breakfast and some TV, then I tackle a room and start to unpack stuff. I normally get to a point where I can't move anything or finish what I started. I get frustrated and stop unpacking and go watch TV to calm down. Well today Notting Hill and Sister Act were on, two of my favorite movies. So what was suppose to be a half hour break at most turns into a few hours. All the momentum and motivation that I had is gone now and it's a struggle to get it back up. Once I do it's back to unpacking for a few hours before frustration sets in again and I turn to TV to calm down and the cycle starts all over again.

I'd love to take a week off from all this moving but obviously I can't. I just got to tell myself to take it one box at a time.

Earthquakes & Skype Chats

So I was woken up by an earthquake early this morning. This is the first earthquake in this new apartment and the fact that it was centered just a few blocks from me, it really shock.. and hard.

I was born and raised in SoCal so I'm use to earthquakes and normally just wake up, realize it's an earthquake, turn over and go back to bed but this one was so hard and sharp, that it actually scared me for a minute. I sat up and waited to see if this was going to continue. When it finished I jumped out of bed and went to the TV to see if they were talking about it. I watched the local news but nothing about a huge earthquake so I figured it was a small one and I must be close to the epic center and that was the case it was a 2.6 but as I mentioned centered just a few blocks from my apartment.

I tried to go back to bed and did for an hour or so but after trying to sleep I decided to just get up and start unpacking.. or at least attempt to figure out where I am going to put all this stuff.

Other then the earthquake, it was a pretty uneventful day.. well there was the four hour skype call that I had with Erik.. yeah that was pretty EPIC!!

First Disneyland Visit of the Year

I took a break for all this moving and unpacking craziness and treated myself to a trip to Disneyland. This is my first visit of the year. I was to meet up with my buddy Brett but while I was on my way there I got a call and he informed me that his driveshaft just fell out of his car and that he would not be joining me. I was bummed of course as I was looking forward to hanging out with him as it's been far to long since we have hung out. I even debated on just turning around but I was already more then halfway there and I really needed a Disney fix so I continued on.

I'd never been to Disneyland solo and I have to say it really isn't that great. I mean I rode all my favorite rides and was there longer then I expected to be but it's not the same when you don't have someone to share the experience with.

Regardless I did enjoy my visit and it was a nice change of pace. But I don't plan on doing another solo trip anytime soon.

Since it was a weekday and I left Disneyland during rush hour it took me almost 2 hours to get home but when I did I just couldn't sit around so I continued with my unpacking and re-organizing, only taking to skype with Erik.

Unpacking Day 3 & Fated Night Premiere

So the unpacking continues.. it's a bit overwhelming as I really misjudged how much stuff I really have. I think with time I'll be able to make this place look nice but for now I'm just trying to figure out where I can store everything without being in the way of other things. I have to get my guest bed and my podcasting station set up asap. I just have so many toy bins all over the place. Sometimes I don't even know where to start. But on the flip side when I do manage to get something done and it looks nice it lifts my spirits and keeps me motivated to get even more done. I figured it would take me about a week to get everything unpacked and the way I want it.. but honestly I think it will be more like three weeks to a month before I'm completely done with everything.

Took a break from unpacking to pick up my friend Jes and go to the premiere of my buddy Dove's fantasy short called Fated Night. Here's a short synopsis: In an age of honor and glory, sorcerers and demons... A group of battle worn warriors encounter a fellow comrade who has been branded a traitor. He has only moments to prove his innocence before they take his life and the life of his mysterious companion

Dove wrote and acted in it. His fiancee and my friend America directed it and my friend Jes did the wardrobe for it.  It was showing down in West Hollywood at a local bar/eatery. There was a group of 20 or so that showed up, including some friends I haven't seen in quite a while.. America, Tennyson, Tara and Yuri.. it was great seeing these guys.

Before they showed the short they aired a behind the scenes featurette, and if you know me you know I love all things BTS. After the featurette it was time for the movie. It's short with a running time of only 10 minutes. What I liked most about this short is that it was great set up for what could be an amazing movie/TV series/Web series. It leaves you wanting to see more.. which is good if they intend to make more but bad if they don't :) The acting was was well done, the sound was amazing and overall just a fantastic short. Great job Dove, America and everyone else involved.

After the premiere Jes and I went out to Islands for a late lunch. It was great hanging with Jes, we got to talk about life in general. She and I haven't had alot of one on one time so this was alot of fun and a great time to really catch up on each others lives.

Spent the rest of the evening unpacking.. we a short break to skype chat with Erik. :)

MASH 4077 Podcast Episode 70

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 discuss one of the most successful and longest running television series in history.. M*A*S*H

Today we cover Season 3, Episode #22 - Pay Day
70th Episode Overall
Directed by Hy Averback
Written by John W. Regier & Gary Markowitz
Production code B305
Original air date March 4, 1975

Set during the Korean War in the 1950’s

Plot Summary: Frank buys one set of pearls for each of the women in his life: Margaret and his wife Lorraine. Radar helps Hawkeye recoup $3,000 in lost earnings, which Hawkeye gives to Father Mulcahy to benefit the orphans. But then the army wants the money back.

Unpacking Day 2, Cable Issues & Girl of Steel

Today I planned to put together my bed for my master bedroom. Only problem is I don't have the instructions and I can't remember which screws go into which holes. I'm gonna have to guess and hope it all works out for the best. This is truly a two man operation as the bed frames are extremely heavy but after a few hours of struggling I managed to get the bed put together and even better is that I didn't have any extra parts. :)

I continued to deal with Time Warners cable... I'm back at their service center returning a tuning adapter. After about an hour wait I exchanged the box and got a new one. I headed back home, hooked it up and it looked like this box was doing the exact same thing that the last box was doing. I called Time Warner and jumped through several hoops before finally talking to a "live" person who couldn't help me so he transferred me the tech department and put me contact with the awesome Keith. With in ten minutes Keith had all my channels up and running and after a week and a half of crazies everything was finally working properly.

Come to find out that the original adapter box properly wasn't broken.. when the previous tech person said that it should be a solid green light and not orange she was wrong. They have two different type of boxes and the one I had is suppose to have a solid orange light. The issue was a missing ID number in their system. Come to find out that Keith and his group do nothing but tech for TWC with Tivo's. So he gave me his direct line just in case I need them in the future...yay!!!

Was unpacking statues and came across what looks to be my only damaged one from the move. Of course it had to be Dobby, those poor house elves are always getting the short end of the stick. I should be able to fix him with a bit a super glue. Let's hope this is the worse of the move damage.

Found out today that my "travel" visa that I opened last year has an 0% introductory financial charge until March of 2014.  I have been living off this card the past eight months. So as long as I pay it off before March I'll pay no "extra" money on it.. woohoo!!!

Came across this awesome website that does custom shoes. Of course I would love to have a pair but they start at $200 and though I'm sure they are worth it.. I just can't bring myself to buying a pair. Oh well I can dream. You can see more HERE.

Totally forgot I had to edit a MASH podcast that's suppose to be released tomorrow. So during the evening I spent the last few hours of the night knocking that out. Got done with it around 11:30pm

 

While unpacking I came across some yearbooks.. so of course I had to look me up and I tweeted some old pictures of me. From left to right.. first pic is from 84/85 so that would put me in eighth grade, next is 86/87 so that would be Sophomore year and the final picture is my Senior picture from 88/89

And finally I found this really cool fan film for a new Supergirl movie. It's pretty awesome, extremely well done.. I'd see this if it was ever made into a full movie or tv series... check it out. It's called Girl of Steel

And on a fun note.. I watched the premiere of Faceoff with Erik via Skype. It was fun as it was like we were sitting next to each other talking about the show as we watch it. We plan to make this a weekly thing.. man I love fast internet :)

Unpacking Day 1 & "Frozen" Goodies

So I was up early as I had to drive out to my storage unit in Santa Clarita to pick up the dolly that I left last night attached to my fridge, so I could return the truck by 11am. I got to storage around 8am, managed to squeeze the dolly into my little Fiesta and made my way back to the apartment. I walked the dolly over to where my uhaul was parked (about three blocks) and realized I had left the key in my apartment... so I had to walk the dolly back to my apartment, pick up the key and then walk with the dolly back to the truck. I loaded up the dolly and drove the truck over to a local North Hollywood uhaul location and dropped it off. I knew I had gone over my miles as I had to make a second trip to storage, but I was pleasantly surprised when she told me my total of overages. Come to find out that I went about 37 miles over and I was expecting .80 cents a miles since that is what I paid just a few weeks ago, but instead it was half that and only .40 cents a mile. I don' t know why.. maybe it's because it was a one way trip and not a round trip. Either way I didn't question it and managed to do this move for just over $200.

As I was turning in the truck I texted my friend Jes who was going to come by and pick me up. I could have walked back to the apartment it was only about 2.5 miles but decided that I'd like to see Jes and take her out for breakfast so I called her up.

While I waited at the uhaul place I was standing out front with about ten or twelve "day laborers", for those who don't know what those are.. they are normally illegal Mexican's who stand in front of every Uhaul/Home Depot looking for work. I have to say I fit in pretty well with them. I had several of them come up to me and start having a conversation in Spanish, even though I kept saying I don't speak Spanish. I was very happy when Jes pulled up but also quick to get inside as five other men came running over to her car.

Jes and I headed to Denny's for some tasty breakfast before she dropped me off at home. I spent the rest of the day trying to figured out what I was going to do next.. so much stuff.. so little room. I did manage to get my living room and dining room set up. There are still a ton of things all around it but at least they are starting to look like rooms.

On the geeky side of things.. I read that they are going to make Frozen into a live Broadway show. I mean that was a given. I can't remember who I was talking to but we both agreed this was meant for a Broadway show.  Details are still in the works but you are read a bit more about it HERE.

Another Frozen goody I found.. I have been listening on you tube at various versions of "Let it Go" and I've heard some good ones but loads of bad ones, especially when it comes to guys singing it. But I found what I think is one of the best renditions male or female. His name is Court Clark. I like that he converted it to male centric (King, boy) and not just a carbon copy of the original. It also doesn't hurt that he's pretty easy on the eyes. Take a listen and let me know what you think. 

The Big Move!!!

This is the big moving day. Friends Jes, Dallas, Jen, Doug, Rupert, Robert and Tamar joined me at my place at 10am. We headed out around 10:30 and drove in two cars to the Uhaul place that I was picking up my 20 foot truck. When I got to the place they had all of two Uhauls. The older lady came out and explained to me that they are new at renting Uhauls and that I might have better luck if I went to the larger facility down the street. But this was the only place who had a 20 foot truck so I told her I would like to rent it from her. This was her first time and she was extremely nervous. The trailer I went into to fill out the paperwork smelt like urine. And I noticed several cats climbing the furniture and one that looked as though it was going to claw my face off. There was also a little dog who's hair was half fallen out and looked extremely sickly trying to rub itself against my leg. After a half hour to forty five minutes and with some help on the phone she managed to get me checked out. Her daughter showed up and she and I did the visual inspection of the truck and I was on my way.

We got to the storage unit and started removing all the toy bins from storage #1. There were way more then I had expected and I miss judged how much stuff I still had so this 20 footer truck wasn't going to be big enough and we would have to come back and pick up the few remaining things. I was extremely disappointed in myself and very frustrated. I snapped at a few people and felt horrible afterwards. Every one was volunteering their time on a Sunday to help me and I had no right getting bitchy over things.

So we loaded up what we could and headed back to my apartment. Luckily there is a large red curb just next to my apartment so I parked the truck there and we started to unload boxes, but the first thing we needed to get in was the refrigerator as we knew boxes and furniture would take up the pathway I had made to the kitchen. I knew it was going to be tough to get it up all the flights of stairs but I had no idea how tough it would really be. We did the first set fairly easy. One step at a time and we twisted at the top and managed to get it into the front door of the complex. I knew it wasn't going up the front set of stairs as it's way to narrow so we headed to the back of the complex where there is a set of two flights of stairs but it's more of an open hallway. After three hours of scratching the fridge, the railing, the walls and taking the doors off we made it half way up the stairway and were stuck. There was no way we would be able to make the turn and head up the next set of stairs.

I was tired and frustrated but I had to make the call that we were not going to get this fridge up in my apartment. Dallas, Tamar and Robert had to leave for a D&D meeting and were already late so we had to now try and get it back down off the stairs without doing any more damage to anything.. we were unsuccessful. We did manage to get it back down to the truck but now we were 3 guys short and very few things were taken up during the three hours of us trying to get the fridge in.

Things just kind of went from bad to worse. We had not eaten all day because when I tried to order pizza when we first got to my place I couldn't find any place to deliver.

Again I miss calculated where everything was going to go in my apartment and my guest room was filled with only a third of the boxes that I thought would fit all of them. We were lining up the hallway outside my apartment with bins and boxes.

Will joined in on the moving but had a bad back so he couldn't really help with the big stuff.. also the two remaining guys Doug and Rupert also had various health issues so Jes, Jen and I did the majority of bringing things up to my apartment.

I had planned to drop off the uhaul by 5pm today but it was 4:30pm now, and since I couldn't get my fridge up into my apartment it had to be taken back to storage. I initially was going to do the second trip at a later date.. maybe a week or so but since I had to take the fridge back I figured we might as well pick up the last of the stuff so I didn't have to rent a uhaul again at a later date. During this time Doug had gone out and picked up some wings and pizza (Thanks Doug).. so we ate and just kind of sat around on my floor and relaxed for a half hour.

After dinner Jes, Jen and I drove the uhaul back to storage, dropped off the fridge and loaded up the remaining stuff into the truck... that's it.. this storage unit is empty!!! We got out of the storage unit facility just in time as they close and lock the gate at 7pm.

Once back at my apartment the boys returned and the few things we had we just took them into the garage area and placed them in my second parking spot as there was no way this stuff was going up into my now packed apartment.

Afterwards Robert, Will & Rupert took off and Jes, Jen, Dallas, Tamar and Doug went over to Jen's for a drink. I was joining them but first I had to find some street parking for this huge uhaul truck. Luckily it didn't take me long to find a spot. I went to make sure the back was locked when I realized that I left the "rented" dolly attached to the fridge which is now up in Santa Clarita..and I can't return the uhaul without the dolly...  this was the perfect way to end one of the worse moves I have ever had.

While I walked back to Jen's place I called my buddy Erik as I needed to hear a friendly voice and that did the job. When I got to Jen's she made me a rum and coke and we all sat around and chatted with each other... It was a great way to decompress. I also got a belated Christmas present from my buddy Will... it's an R2D2 knitted beanie cap.. I LOVE IT!!! That defiantly lifted my spirits. I left around 11pm and I headed back home to crash for the night.

I want to thank Dallas, Robert, Tamar, Will, Rupert and Doug for helping me today. But I especially want to thank Jen and Jes who rocked it the entire day.. you guys were amazing. I'm sorry this move was such a hot mess but thanks for sticking it out and thanks for putting up with a cranky Kenny.

Parks, Farmer's Market and Family

Woke up this morning around 8:30am which was a surprise as I went to bed five hours earlier at 3:30am... but for only having 5 hours sleep and being a big drunk I felt pretty good. I actually got out of bed around 9am and started unpacking boxes. Now that I have a pantry I can start loading it up with food that has been in boxes for weeks. While I was unpacking my buddy Will texted me and asked if I wanted to go for a walk around the park with him. I, of course said yes. But before I could go for the hike I had to unload from car from yesterday as I never unloaded the final load of things. Well ten minutes later not only was Will at my front door but also Jen and Dallas. We had everything up in my apartment in now time.

We started walking around the park but then Will mentioned that there was a small farmer's market just down the street. I guess it happens every Saturday, so we headed over. It as very small but the best part was the live music. We grabbed a bite to eat and sat and watched this "older" group of people preform. They were all pretty good.. afterwards we stayed around and chatted with them for a bit. I plan to go back to the farmer's market in the near future. After the market we finished walking around the park.. it was a good time. 

After the park I headed down to my brother's to exchange cars. Since I no longer was doing storage runs I was able to give back Lora's car and pick up my little Fiesta. I hung out with the family for about four hours before heading home.

I was tired and it was hitting me hard, while driving down to my brother's I felt myself getting very sleepy. So on the drive home I gave Erik a call and he kept me company (and awake) while I drove home... thanks Erik.

Once home my sleepiness was gone and I continued to get ready for tomorrows big move. I had to move things around so we could get the big pieces of furniture into my new apartment. I'm dreading but also super excited for tomorrows move.

It's All About #Bulzt

Photo courtesy of new friend Mauricio

~#BULZT~

An addendum to my last blog post... my buddy Erik pointed out that I didn't mention anything about #bulzt. For those who had the privilege of seeing all the tweets tonight about that here is the story.

I was drunk and I tweeted "So I'm drunk...bulzt having a great time!!!" of course bulzt was suppose to be but and I even asked my friend Jen to look at the tweet before I sent it and she said it looked fine. So I tweeted and my buddy Sean saw it and thought it was a funniest thing in the world and he turned it into thing. Soon many of party goers from Grant Imahara 

• @grantimahara Jan 11 "@ShannAwesome: “@hxcofficemonkey "@JesReaves: "@seanbecker: #bulzt" #bulzt" #bulzt" #bulzt" #bulzt"  

... to the birthday boy himself Jason Charles Miller

• @jasoncmiller Jan 11 #bulzt killer party authority @Geekyfanboy is making a #bulztnation

 ... where hash tagging their tweets with #bulzt.

They also started tweeting # versions of bulzt like #bulztnation, #battleofthebulzt, #thunderbulzt & #canihazbulzt

I love that my little mistake turned into a few hours of "awesome" on twitter. Thanks Sean for making it so.

Pantries, Parties and Pals

Spent my morning building the two bookshelves I purchased from IKEA a few days ago. These bookshelves are to become my new food pantry. One set will have doors and the other will have pull out boxes.

Took me a few hours but I got both done and I think they turned out pretty good. Unfortunately the boxes I had gotten were to big for the bookshelves. At first I was going to return them and try and get smaller ones but a friend on Facebook (Scarlett) mentioned that I should try and adjust the shelves to see if they can fit that way. I had thought about it but never tired it.. so I did and it worked. I can't use the nine boxes as planned but I did manage to get four of them in and then I put two more on top and I'll be putting two more of the boxes on top of the fridge when I get that in.

Overall I'm very happy with the final product.

I did my final run to the storage unit.. yay!!! I picked up the final load of small furniture things that I could fit in my car. I am soooooooo happy that this part of my move is over. Never again will I move over a weeks time.

I still have the "big" move this weekend but once that is over I will be done with the move and I can try and bring some sort of order to my chaotic life.

During the evening I was invited to my friend Jason Charles Millers birthday party. He's an amazing musical and voice over artist. Now that I'm living in North Hollywood I was able to actually walk to where he was having the party. So I first picked up my friend Jen and we walked to our friends Jes and Dallas' place and joining us at their place was our friend Leslie. We then walked over to the party together. It was a ton a fun. I actually had a few shots of some Coldcock whiskey and then a few glasses of vodka and cranberry, I was feeling pretty good. We left the party around 3am and started to make our way home. Joining us for our walk home was Sean. We dropped off Dallas, Jes

and Leslie and the three of us continued to my place. Jen and Sean walked me all the way to my apartment to make sure I made it home safely.. thanks guys. They left and I crashed.

Update on the Erik and Kenny adventure.. Besides texting back and forth throughout the day, I did talk with Erik for a few minutes while I waited for Leslie to arrive at Dallas and Jes' place. We discussed our expectations of this budding friendship/relationship. He wanted to make sure we were on the same page (honesty is the best policy). I know I like Erik more then I should for the amount of time we've have known each other but we are both very realistic guys.. he lives in Oregon and I live in California, it's not ideal for starting a relationship so for now we are still getting to know each other and our friendship will continue to grow, if nothing else comes of it I have this new incredible friend that I will know for the rest of my life and that makes me very happy. Is this the end of our adventure.. no way.. not by far. I may not be blogging updates everyday like I have the past week but will continue to text and talk.. and who knows maybe he'll pop back up here or there in a future blog post.

Alien Nation Podcast 2nd Anniversary

Today is Alien Nation: The Newcomers Podcast 2nd anniversary. I released the first episode two years ago today. I stated this podcast because I wanted to work with my brother. We both loved Alien Nation and there wasn't another podcast like it.

It's not my most popular podcast by far. We get a few hundred downloads/listeners a month but what is great about this podcast is I get to do it with my brother. We have blast when we record together and our chemistry is undeniable.

Unfortunately December and January's podcasts have been postponed because of my move, but we should have a brand new one for the February 10th release date.

Thanks to all who have listened and continue to support this little podcast.

"Get Fit" Week 23

I'm still in the middle of all this moving crazies so I haven't been eating properly or working out on a regular bases. So I don't really have anything new to report. Last week I weighed in at 198 and today when I weighed myself I came in at 196. That's 2 pounds lighter then last week but I take it all with a grain of salt. I hope once I get everything moved into my new place and life gets back to normal.. well as normal as normal can be for me I will start back up on my eating and work out regime.

Moving In - Day 7, Internet & PGA

So this morning it hit me that I have been using alot of minutes talking to Erik everyday but even worse I have been using my data up on my phone because I don't have internet. So I checked both. I have only gone 9 days into this new billing cycle and I have already used 440 of my 550 minutes and I have used half of my 2gigs of data already. It will be interesting to see if I can make it another 21 days without going over.

And speaking of internet... I HAVE INTERNET!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So that should help with my data plan. And now that I have internet I can use skype to save on minutes for my phone.

Continued my storage runs. I did three today and I'm happy to say that I finished bringing all my boxes. I even started bringing small pieces of furniture. So all I have left are the big pieces of furniture and a ton of toy bins.

Today I walked to dinner. I love that I can just walk out my front door and walk to several food places. I also found out that the red line (subway) is about a 20 minute walk for me. I plan on taking advantage of that as much as possible.

When I got back to my apartment there was a document taped to our front door with the results of our recent building inspection we had a few days ago. Lot's of little minor things like toilet leaking or closet doors off it's hinges. And I'm happy to say that my apartment didn't have any issues... and that could be because they fixed everything to rent it out and the other apartment, those tenant have been there for years.

In geeky news.. I voted for the PGA (Producer's Guild of America) Awards. The ceremony will be held in January and I can attend thought it's fairly expensive for a ticket and I'd have to rent a tux.

Speaking of PGA I got another screener which is very unusual as I rarely get screeners in January as I mentioned above we vote towards the end of December and beginning of January. But I'm happy I got this movie. .. The Wolf of Wall Street.

I'm having blog issues today. I don't know what is going on but my main website page isn't showing my posts. It might just be a cookie issue with my computer as I asked friends out there to check it out and it seems to be working just fine for all of them... I'll be keeping an eye on it.

Now for an update on the Erik and Kenny "get to know you" adventure. We continue to text on and off all day long. But we did upgrade our phone conversations to a video skype call. We get to see each other now as we chat. It was a blast, we talked for about and hour and a half. Such a different experience video chatting compared to just audio chatting. Hopefully we can continue our video skype chats.

Moving In - Day 6, TWC, IKEA & Meatballs

I got up around 8ish this morning and jumped in the shower only to find out that there was no hot water. I guess I have to take my showers earlier if I want to enjoy the hot water. So needless to say it was a very cool and quick shower.

I headed over to the NoHo Diner. I really like their breakfast and today felt like a big full breakfast kind of day.

I did my first run at 10am and got back to my place around 11am. I didn't unload anything as I wanted to take a break.. I was particularly tired today. I was talking to my buddy Doug and he mentioned that if I ordered the cable and internet that it might already be active (the internet). So I figured I'd hook up everything and see what the deal was. Needless to say that I didn't expect to be dealing with this for the next seven hours.

I'm not going to give you a blow by blow detail account of the seven hours as I really don't want to have to relive it again. I'll just give you the highlights.

So I called to see if I could get my internet activated and give them the details of my new cable modem but they couldn't find my order that I submitted two days ago, even though I had gotten a conformation email. After a few hours and talking to four different people no one could really explain what happen to my order so I had to re-order the cable and internet again, and of course it was slightly more money then my original deal. This time instead of having a tech person come to me I was going to go do a local TWC center and pick up everything that I needed.

So I headed over and it was packed and I was there for about an hour. I got all the equipment that was required and headed back to my place. I hooked it all up as directed and still nothing. 3 more TWC people and several hours later still nothing until the final person said.. oh your service has been cut from the building (though several of the other people said that it was still active). She said a tech person will be out within 48 hours... so know I have to wait once again.

I was so drained after dealing with these people but I still had a car full of stuff that needed to be brought up so I once again unloaded the car (for the final time).

It's now about 8pm and I headed to IKEA to pick up the pieces for my pantry. I got the first piece but when I went to the second piece it wasn't what I thought it was.. it was actually attached to the top piece (I had thought they were two pieces). So I had to go with plan B and get two of the same bottom piece and one I would get a set of doors for and the other I would get folding boxes for to use as drawers.

While at IKEA I grabbed dinner and for the first time had their famous Swedish meatballs, which included some mash potatoes. I have to admit those were pretty amazing. I can't believe I've been coming to IKEA for years and had never tried them. I can see me going to IKEA just for dinner now.

Once home I was to tired to bring the boxes/pantry stuff up so I left it down in the car and came up to the apartment to relax.

Update on the Erik and Kenny adventure.. we continued to text during the day and once again chatted on the phone in the evening. We've talked everyday since we "officially" met four days ago. We continue to get to know each other better and our friendship continue to grow. He makes me smile.

Moving In - Day 5 & IKEA

So I was up super early today and started day five of traveling from storage to my new apartment. I'm tired of moving, I don't know why I thought it would be more leisurely if I moved over a week instead of a day or two. I won't make that mistake again.

But on this fifth day I can actually say that I'm making a dent in my storage rentals. Both of them are looking more and more sparse.. which is good.

I only managed to do two runs today before calling it quits for the day. Some days I can get three in but some days I can only manage two, like today.

After the move I went to IKEA to look for some sort of pantry. My kitchen is extremely small and have very little cabinet space. I barely fit all my kitchen stuff in to them but that left absolutely no place to put food. I walked around IKEA for about an hour and they didn't have quite what I wanted but I think I could combine two different items and make them work. I didn't purchase anything today but I have a good idea of what I want.

Day three of no internet... I'm getting the shakes. No blogging, no podcasting.. nothing. I'm kind of joking about getting the shakes but it's tough not having any TV or internet. I've been watching Frozen over and over again as I have it on in the background while I unpack things. But this no TV/Internet is killing me.

The Erik and Kenny adventure continues to move forward. We text on and off all day long. We also talked once again on the phone for a couple of hours during the evening. It still amazes me how much we are alike. I'm enjoying his company very much.

Moving In - Day 4, Tivo, Frozen & Siri

Today I got up and was excited as I was going to get some help today with moving. My buddy Brett was going to come over and help and then crash at my place tonight and help again tomorrow. Unforutnatly my luck with helpers is not good. And he too, like Jen yesterday was sick and had to cancel.. hopefully he'll feel better tomorrow.

So I am going solo once again. I did three trips back and fourth moving more of my stuff from storage to my new apartment. After the third run I was exhausted and called it a night.

I did take a break while moving and had brunch with my buddy Doug at this breakfast place that he has been telling me about for as long as I have known him. It was actually some very tasty breakfast. Afterwards we went to Best Buy as I needed to buy a Tivo and cable modem and Doug is really good at the techy stuff. I spent a few hundred dollars but I got the stuff I needed. Now I just need to set up my cable and internet but from all the horror stories I have heard about Time Warner Cable (and I have also experienced them in the past), I was not hopeful that this was going to be a piece of cake.

Later in the evening I headed down the block to Jen's to use her computer so I could sign up for cable and internet. Jen was still sick so I didn't stay long but I did order my stuff and a TWC tech person is going to come out on either Friday or Saturday.. so I will have to wait a week before I can get either of these things :(

So this is day two of no internet. I'm thankful for my phone but it's still not the same as my computer. I miss my internet.

On the Geeky side of things.. while out with Doug he told me about how if you ask Siri about "Her" she'll actually have four or five different responses. So if you have a iPhone, ask Siri if she is Her and see what she says... then ask again and see if  you get a different response... it's pretty awesome.

And Frozen is the number one movie in North America once again. It's extremely rare for a movie to be number one and then drop down the list and then regain the number one spot again. Honestly I'm not surprised as Frozen is really the only family friendly movie out there and it's pretty AMAZING on top of that!!! I've watched it over and over and over again.. but I still want to go see it on the big screen.. at least once.

As for the Erik and Kenny adventure, we are continuing our daily texting. We text throughout the day and tonight we chatted on the phone for over 3 hours... good times.

Moving In - Day 3

Got up early, had a much better sleep since I now have my air mattress once again. I am helping my friend Tamar move today but I wanted to try and get at least one trip in before then. So I headed up to storage (btw it's in Santa Claria, so it's a 30 minute drive). I loaded up everything and made my way back to my apartment. It took me a bit longer then I had planned to unload the stuff but I was only about 15 minutes late to Tamar's place. Robert and Tamar had already taken a load over to his new place so I met up with them there. I helped unload and we did a few more trips before Tamar was done with his move.

Afterwards Tamar took us out for lunch as a thank you. We grabbed Smashburger. I've only had Smashburger once when I was on a layover in Utah, but it's a very good burger place. I said my goodbyes and headed straight up to storage and loaded up more boxes.

When I got back home I gave my friend Jen a call as she mentioned that she might be able to help me unload (which really is the worst part of the move). She came over and we started to unload. Oh I should mention that Jen wasn't feeling that great earlier in the day but said she was doing better. Well after about five runs up and down the stairs she turned white and next thing I knew she was adding the inside content of her stomach to one of the recycle bins down in the garage. Needless to say she went home to crash. It took me about an hour to to finish and was spent.

I went over to 7-11 and picked up a pizza.. yes 7-11 now sells full size pizzas. I watched Frozen on my computer and ate pizza on the floor of my office before calling it a night.

The Erik and Kenny "getting to know each other adventure" continues...  Eric and I texted all day long. Just little things from time to time. We also went from texting to talking on the phone. We chatted for 2 1/2 hours straight... it was pretty amazing.

Also this is day one of no internet or TV.. so far so good... will see how long that lasts :)

An Unexpected Surprise

When I got to Jen and Will's I had gotten a direct message on twitter from a follower of mine asking if it was cool if he friended me on Facebook. He started following me a few months back and we chatted here and there so I started following him back. I checked out his profile on twitter and thought to myself he's cute and has these beautiful blue eyes.

I responded to his request with "of course.. if we were local friends we'd be hanging out all the time" as he's a geek just like me. So as soon as he friended me I accepted and we started chatting via twitter DM. I checked out his profile on Facebook and noticed a few things that lead me to believe that he was gay. I had no idea before this time as he never really mentions much in his twitter feed.

About an hour into our conversation and three mistaken tweets I gave him my phone number and he gave me his and we started texting. We texted back and forth the entire D&D run and when I went home at 11pm we continued to text until around 12:30am. We texted for a total of 7 1/2 hours... it was pretty awesome.

His name is Erik and he lives in Portland Oregon. I don't know where this is going, as of right now we are getting to know each other better and from the sound of it we are very much alike in our geekiness. All I know is that he makes me happy and I look forward to seeing where this adventure takes us.

Lunch with a Friend & D&D&D

Got up early today.. have to drive back to my brothers and finish getting the rest of my stuff. No moving today. Once I packed up the car I headed to LA to meet up with a buddy of mine who was visiting from Chicago. He's a Neurologist looking for residency and was applying to places here in LA.

We meet on the set of The Guild's Game On music video and became fast friends and that friendship has grown because of Facebook. We hadn't actually seen each other in almost four years.

So I picked him up and we headed to The Grove for lunch. He wanted to try out this fancy burger place called Umami Burgers. I had never had them before but they were very good. Some of the best beef I have eaten in a hamburger.

After lunch we wandered around The Grove, walked through stores, talking about our lives and I learned alot about the medical system. It was great spending some time with him. I don't know when I'll see him again as he's residency will be starting in July and the next four years of his life will be nothing but that. Thanks Andrew for taking some time out of your busy schedule to hang out with me. Good luck with your residency and I can't wait to hang out again when you're back in town.

Once I dropped off Andrew I headed home just for a few minutes before walking over to Will and Jen's for this years first D&D game. We are starting a new campaign and this one is a bit different because we are drinking as well. We even added a drinking game so when certain characters do certain things we all drink.

There was a lot of exposition in the first few hours and not a lot of action going on.. and also not a lot of drinking. But man as soon as we started to fight the chaos began. I was extremely tipsy as were many fellow players. Towards the end of the night it was crazy. Dallas our DM had quite a bit to drink and everyone was becoming louder and louder. Finally at 11pm I called it a night thought they played on for another few hours.

Moving In - Day 2

Got up early and packed up everything at my brother's house. I was borrowing my sister-in-laws Ford Flex as it's about three times bigger then my little Fiesta so I figured I'd be able to make fewer trips. I left my computer and bed at my brothers as I intended to go back for one last night.

I put a call out to my friends for help and like before my buddy Doug volunteered to give me a hand. So I picked him up and we were off to my storage. We loaded up the Flex with nothing but boxes. We filled every corner of that car. We got back to my place and my landlord was in my apartment fixing my toilets (I guess they were leaking).

So Doug and I went up and down and up and down those stairs many many times. We headed back for another load. Once we were done bringing that load in I thought we were both going to keel over. We were exhausted. I knew then this wasn't going to be an easy move.

Doug was done, he couldn't continue but after an hour break I went back solo for one more load and by the end I was wiped. I don't recall being that tired in a long time.

Doug texted me later that day and said that his step counter that he had on him while we moved said that he did 24 flights of stairs.. and since I did one more trip,  I'm thinking I climbed about 36 flights of stairs today.

For the evening I got to hang out with my buddy Will. We walked to Pitfire Grill to grab some dinner. Afterwards we went back to his place were he offered me a beer. In the past I have declined as I will never drink and drive.. not even just a sip. But then it him me.. I can drink all I want as I only live a block away and can stumble home if needed. So we enjoyed a beer while playing Injustice.

Afterwards Will loaned me a pad and sleeping bag as I decided that I was not going to drive back to my brothers tonight and instead just go tomorrow and picked up my computer and air mattress. I wish I would have just brought everything this morning like I planned but oh well..

I crashed on the floor of my master bedroom with nothing but a thin pad, some pillows and a sleeping bag.. a perfect 1st night in my new apartment :)