Maleficent Trailer, Shorty Awards and Sherlock S3

Disney released a second trailer for the new movie Maleficent with Angelina Jolie. I thought the first was was awesome.. this one is AMAZING!!!! The music is very ominous and chilling. I hope this is the tone of the movie. I can't wait to see this.

 

My friend Doug nominated me for a Shorty Award for Best Podcaster and I have been promoting it the past few days as you need to be in the top 4 to make it to the finals to be considered for the award. The current leader has 159 votes and I figured with 2500+ Twitter followers and over 800 friends on Facebook I'd be able to beat him easily.  Well it's not as easy as I thought. So far I've gotten around 24 votes and I appreciate each one of them. I just thought with so many followers I would be able to get a few more by now. I don't know why folks aren't voting for me.. maybe they don't feel that I am the best Podcaster and that's cool. I was just hoping for a better turn out and it's not happening. I'm not giving up I'm still tweeting and Facebooking about it and I will continue until the nomination part of this process is over on February 18th. I want to thank my buddy Dallas for promoting me on his Facebook and Twitter.. I really appreciate it. If you have a twitter account and would like to vote for me just follow this LINK... thanks

So you may have seen this tweet earlier today.. "My buddy @truebrixon just suggested that I get whored out for corndogs. Since he was whored out by his friends for cheese." Many of you asked what this was about and I told Erik @truebrixon that I would have to explain this in a blog post so here is it. I was talking to Erik tonight and he told me that there is this cheese truck parking in the hotel parking lot where he is staying and his friends "jokenly" said he needs to break in and get them some cheese.. he protests to they said he needed to woo the driver and he replied with... "So you want me to whore myself out for cheese" and his friend said yes. I then asked what could I whore myself for and earlier in the conversation we were talking about Disneyland corndogs so he said "why don't you whore yourself out for corndogs" and thus the tweet was born.

During the evening my friends Jes and Dallas come over to my place to watch the first two episodes of the new season of Sherlock. I had seen the first episode last week but the other two had not seen it yet. First up was S3 Ep1 "The Empty Hearse" Two years after the devastating effects of The Reichenbach Fall, Dr John Watson has got on with his life. New horizons, romance and a comforting domestic future beckon. But, with London under threat of a huge terrorist attack, Sherlock Holmes is about to rise from the grave with all the theatricality that comes so naturally to him. It's what his best friend wanted more than anything, but for John Watson it might well be a case of 'be careful what you wish for'. If Sherlock thinks everything will be just as he left it though, he's in for a very big surprise. 

So after the shocker that was the finale of series 2 I couldn't wait to see how they were going to explain how Sherlock faked his own death. I liked the opening scene when we see of "possible" explanation on how he survived. And later we get a "Slash" version of it and then again at the end, from Sherlock himself, but we are lead to believe he wasn't telling the truth.. so it's left to the views imagination as to how he did it. 

I have to say I love Mary, I think she's a perfect addition to the duo, now trio. She can stand her own against Sherlock. Jes informed me that the actress who plays Mary is actually Martin Freedman's partner of many years. That explains their great chemistry. 

Sherlock's surprising Watson and Watson's reaction was brilliant. I don't blame Watson one bit for beating Sherlock to pulp. Loved Detective Lestrade reaction to Sherlock surprising him. I liked that Sherlock teamed up with Molly to investigate some mysteries. And the end when Watson forgives Sherlock when he thought they were going to die. And during that scene I kept saying.. I hope Sherlock isn't playing with Watson but of course I should have known better. I can go on an on about how much I loved every aspect of this episode.

Oh and I loved the conversation between Mrs Hudson and Watson about him finding someone new and she asks what's his name and Watson goes on the defensive about not being gay. That's an on going joke from the very first episode and I love that they continue with it here.

All in all a great start to series three.

Next we watched S3 Ep2 "The Sign of Three" As Lestrade fumes over his constant inability to convict the Waters gang of bank robbers Holmes prepares for his role as best man at Mary and Watson's wedding. His speech, initially bizarre, turns out to be a moving tribute to his friend whilst he also contributes two anecdotes of recent cases, both unsolved. The first concerns a young guardsman whose life Watson saved after he was the victim of a 'locked room' attempted murder. The second involves a man who uses the identities of the recently deceased to date different women. As he looks around the wedding party Holmes suddenly realizes their connected solutions, which also involve Watson's former commanding officer, disfigured war hero Major Sholto. 

This was by far one of the funniest episodes of Sherlock. Sherlock's best man speech was awkward then sweet and once again awkward. Drunk Sherlock and Watson was the best. We got to see an entirely different side to Sherlock in this episode. I loved that these two different stories blended together into the third and main story of the wedding of John and Mary. I loved Sherlock's interaction with the bridesmaid. I got to see my favorite "bad girl" Irene Adler, even for just a minute.. it made me smile. It was a very touching episode, made me tear up several times but more often I was laughing out loud. The ending was very melancholy with Sherlock not sticking around and leaving the wedding reception alone.

I can't wait for the final episode of series three.... and then we have to wait once again for series four next year (hopefully) but I hear we might be getting a special Christmas episode.. here's hoping.

Booking My Trip To Ireland & The U.K.

I don't think I have mentioned it much on this blog but since my house sold I have been planning my ultimate trip to Ireland and The United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland). These are destinations that I have been wanting to visiting for almost 20 years. 

So tonight I jumped online and booked my trip. It was tough hitting that final confirmation button. As this is a life long dream, but I am currently out of work and have been for almost a year. The responsible part of me almost won out and I struggled with this for the past two weeks... but you know what, you only live once. I'm 43 years old and have never left the United States..  I have a bit of extra money (from the house sale) and I know if I don't go this time I'll regret it.. so I clicked the confirmation button... there is no truing back now.

The fun/stressful part begins... the planning stage. I'll be flying out on March 15th and retuning home on April 17th. Yes that's 32 days for this vacation. It's going to be EPIC!!!! And what makes this even more special is that my best friend Robert will be joining me for the first part of the leg. He also booked a trip to Ireland/England a few months back and at the time I wasn't sure of what dates I was going to go so we didn't plan anything together. But now that I moved my trip up our schedules aligned and we are now going to do Ireland together. I even managed to get on the same flights as him so we can travel together as well.. woohoo.

We fly into Dublin, Ireland on March 16th and we drive/train up to just outside Belfast were our friend Thomas lives. There are no set plans as of yet but Robert and I, and possibly Thomas will explore all of Ireland. We plan to rent a car and drive the entire coastline. We're going to to take a week to do this. After the week Robert is heading to London for a week and I'll be staying in Ireland a few more days to hang with Thomas before making my own trip to the Scotland,Wales and England. Not sure if I'm going to start at the top in Scotland or at the very bottom in England but I will be taking the next 3 weeks and exploring every part of that beautiful country.

And as you all know me, if you read my blog.. I'll be documenting the entire thing.. pictures and video blogs. I'm also thinking about doing some sort of podcast or something similar. I'm still in the very early planning stages for all this. All I know is this is going to be a trip of a lifetime and I can't wait for it to begin.

Podcasting, In-n-Out & Goodbyes

Today started in a panic. I am recording some MASH 4077 Podcasts today at 11am but I'm still not able to find my podcasting equipment, which is packed away in one of my hundred boxes. I looked a bit yesterday with no luck so this morning I was up early and as soon as Thomas got up I started looking again. I went through almost every box/bin and of course at fate would have it, I found the equipment in the very last box in the very back of the guest closet.

After my morning ordeal Thomas and I went out for breakfast once again to the NoHo Diner. On our way back we walked around the park. Once home I started preparing for the podcast while Thomas watched some more TNG.

Today my co-hosts and I were recording 7 episodes of our MASH 4077 Podcast. It's been a while since all three of us were together for a podcast as the last batch was missing Al. Two fun hours later we had seven podcast recorded. We had a blast recording these. I think the episodes are not only going to be informative but a lot of fun to listen to as all three of us just clicked. Now I have the fun part of editing these podcasts together before releasing them every two weeks. We're currently recording season 4 of MASH, we have many more seasons to cover and years left to record.

After podcasting I took Thomas to In-n-Out, I was surprised to hear he had never tried them. In all his visits to LA I figured he had to try them at least once.. but that wasn't the case. So we drove out to the one in Burbank as it was the closest to Airport and he was going to be leaving right after lunch.

He went for the full experience and got a Double Double. From the way he ate it (with in a few minutes) I'd say he liked it. But he had the same opinion as me.. There food is good but it's not the best ever hamburger by far. But at least he can now mark that off his list of things to do while in California.

After the late lunch I drove him to the Burbank airport and his mini birthday weekend with friends has come to an end. What is so great is that I will hopefully be seeing him in March sometimes if my travel plans pan out.. here's hoping.

It was great getting to hang out with Thomas the past few days. He needed a friend and a shoulder to lean on and I'm glad I was the one he came to for the support. I hope he had a fun weekend and was able to take his mind off things.

After I dropped of Thomas at the airport I came home and had my daily 2 hour Skype conversation with my buddy Erik, as always it's a highlight of my day/night getting to talk with him... good times are always had.

The only other HUGE thing to happen tonight is that I booked of my Ireland/England trip but I'm going to do an separate post about that.. so look for that soon.

Hiking, Frozen and Dinner with Friends

Today Thomas and I got up and headed to the NoHo Diner for some breakfast. After breakfast we went to Griffith Park to go on a hike. When we started it was around 65 degrees but 3 hours later the temperature was around 81 degrees. Neither of us really prepared well for this hike. Thomas forgot to bring shorts and hiking shoes and I managed to put on hiking boots but forgot to bring a hat and I really should have worn shorts... it was hot!!

It was a 2 hour hike up to the highest point in Griffith Park and an hour to get back down. It was a struggle at times but I forced myself to do it. I knew I had it in me but there were times I wanted to give up, turn around and head back down.

After the hike we headed over to The Habit (a hamburger joint) for lunch and we ran into Jes who was picking up food for herself and Dallas. I told her that once we were done eating we were going to watch Frozen as Thomas had not seen it and I wanted to share this awesome movie with him. She said she would be up for watching again so when we got back to my place she and Dallas joined us for the screening. Both Jes and I really resisted singing along with the songs.. it was tough and I think we both hummed and sung under our breaths but we managed not to ruin the experience for Thomas.

After Frozen I headed out to my friends John and Moises place for their annual 12 Days of Christmas Dinner. We use to have to closer to the 12th day of Christmas but with all our schedules it gets pushed further and further back each year. I have been coming to these dinners for years. Joining John and Moises were the regulars.. Tom, Ervin, Bruce and Martin. I've known these guys for years but I don't get to see that often.. I'm hoping now that I'm out of the boondocks that, that will change... I miss these guys.

It was a fantastic dinner, Moises is an amazing cook. We caught up on each others lives and it was a fun time. I had originally planned to stay only 2 hours because Thomas was back at my place alone watching TV but I was having such a great time 2 hours turned into 4 hours. But luckily for me Thomas had a great time watching TNG and other shows on Netflix.

Once I was back Thomas and I hung out a few more hours and watched TV before calling it a night.

Living Room and Birthday Boy Thomas

Today I finished setting up my living room. Other then the missing/broken plate everything is in it's place and I think it turned out fantastic. It has a very warm and inviting feeling. I love walking through the front door and being greeted by all this geekiness. Now it's time to move on to the other rooms.. one room at a time.

Got the first five volumes of Histories of Middle Earth in paperback. I got them off of Ebay as I want to delve deeper into the world of Middle Earth. I've read The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion and loved each and everyone one of those stories. I can't wait until I have some free time to jump into a world that I just adore.

Picked up my buddy Thomas from the Burbank airport today. He was flying in from Utah where he is working for a month stateside, he's original from Ireland. It's his birthday today and he wanted to spend it here in SoCal with me and our friends... yay!!!

I picked him up a little after noon and we came back to my place, where he was crashing. We watched the first two Felicia Day episodes of Supernatural as he had not seen them yet. After that we watched some TNG which it's been years since he had seen. We walked over to Chipotle for some lunch.

For dinner I made plans to celebrate his birthday with some friends at a local Pitfire Pizza. Joining us for this part of the birthday party was Robert, Jes, Dallas, Scott, Rupert, Doug and of course Thomas and myself for a total of 8 people. We had a blast, ate some good food and chatted for a few hours. After dinner we went down the street where another friend of ours was celebrating some good news. So we hung out with Adam, Andrew and Katie for about ten minutes before saying goodbye and heading back to my place. But before we got back to my place we stopped by Will to see if he wanted to join us as well. So he and Becca joined the party back at my place. Also Robert's girlfriend Cait arrived shortly after.

Since Thomas doesn't drink Jes suggested that we all do Birthday cake shots so after singing Happy Birthday and Thomas blowing out the candles I cut the cake into cubes and we all grabbed a piece by hand and shoved the entire thing into our mouth.. it was alot of fun.

I managed to cram 11 people in my living room and we all sat around my coffee table playing some Cards Against Humanity, which Thomas had never played. We played until around 12:30am when we called it a night and everyone headed home.

I was extremely happy that so many people were able to celebrate Thomas' birthday. It was a great night and I hope Thomas enjoyed himself... Happy Birthday Buddy!!!

3 Years...

Wow.. I just realized that it's been 3 year since Harry and I broke up.. the date just flew by... January 12th.

I can't believe it's been three years.. part of me thinks it feels like yesterday and the other part feels like it's been forever. Of course this break up was hard on me. We spent almost 8 years together. This was my one and only long term relationship. This was the guy I was going to grow old with. When you're with someone for that long you grow accustom to seeing them everyday, spending time with them 24/7 and then suddenly they're gone. It's as though a part of you has been removed. It takes time to adjust and learn to live without that part but in time you stop missing it and life moves on.

Since the break up I have only gone on one lunch date and that lead no where. I have had two sexual encounters (via craigslist) and they were more like heavy petting but I'm not that type of person to just sleep with someone just to sleep with them. There has to be meaning behind it. And these two experiences proved that to me.

I really don't miss the sex that much, but what I do miss is the companionship. Yes I have friends and some of them are extremely close to me but it's not the same. There is this intimacy that you have with your partner that you don't have with anyone else. A love you share that goes beyond friendship or family.

One big thing I miss about having a partner is cuddling, I'm a very tactile kind of person. I hug when I greet hello and say goodbye to friends. You can tell alot from a hug, I have some friends, when they hug, you can feel the love in their embrace and then there are others who feel as though they are just hugging out of courtesy... and I don't think any less of them as some people don't like to hug. But for me human touch is extremely important and I'm not talking about it in a sexual way. I'm talking about two people connecting with touch, there's an energy there that flows between them. I think I miss that the most.

Will I find my mister right, the man who will sweep me off my feet and spend our remaining years together.. I hope so. If you'd have asked me that question a month ago I would have said it's doubtful but recently a spark has reignited what I had thought was gone forever.... HOPE!!!

"Get Fit" Weeks 24 & 25

So I missed blogging about last weeks "Get Fit" so I decided to double up on this one. Nothing has really changed since my last blog post. I'm still in the middle of all this crazy moving stuff. I still don't have a refrigerator and that is making it very difficult to eat properly. I have done a bit of walking and running around the park, but no where near what I want to be doing.

If you recall I gained and then lost a few pounds during week 23 bringing me in at 196lbs. Well for week 24 I was gained a pound coming in at 197lbs and then lost that pound  during week 25. I am currently 196lbs again. I know these numbers don't really matter. I actually think I look thinner and have been building some muscle with all this moving the past month.

I'm hoping with things settling down here at my new apartment I can get back into some sort of routine. First and foremost I need to buy a refrigerator stat!!

Please Nominate Me For A Shorty Award

Nominations for the 6th Annual Shorty Awards are underway. If you don't  know what the Shorty Awards are... The Shorty Awards honor the best of social media, recognizing the people and organizations producing real-time short form content across Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, YouTube, Instagram, Vine, and the rest of the social Web. I'm trying to win "Best Podcaster"

Do you have that favorite podcast that you watch or listen to throughout the day? What takes an average podcast and moves itself higher than all the rest? Communication; some of the top podcasts today are taking to the little blue bird, facebook, and YouTube to talk to their fans, get feedback, and gather shoutouts. Nominate your favorite #Podcaster who has the best presence on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube

I tried several years ago to get my podcasts and myself nominated with no luck and I didn't intend to try this year but my buddy Doug nominated me and got the ball rolling. I notice that they actually have an official "Podcaster" category (use to be a write in only). When I checked it out and saw that the top person nominated in the "Podcaster" category only had 132 votes. I figured.. hey that should be easy to beat, I mean I have over 800 "friends" on Facebook and over 2500 twitter followers.. surely I can get the votes to be in the top 4 which then gets me to the final vote.

So far it's not going as planned, It only takes a few second to nominate me. First of all you need to have a twitter account. Then click on this link http://shortyawards.com/Geekyfanboy and I have made it super easy as all you have to do is finish this sentence "I nominate @Geekyfanboy for a Shorty Award in #podcaster because..." and hit tweet.. it's that simple.

I'd appreciate all the nominations I can get. Nominations for the Shorty Awards end on February 18th, 2014!

My Latest Babylon 5 Viewing

TV night finally continues after almost a month hiatus due to all this moving craziness. Tonight Robert and I continued with our Babylon 5 first time viewing. Tonight we watched Season three episodes 16, 17 & 18.

First up is S3 Ep16 "A War Without End" part 1: Ivanova gets a distress call from herself pleading for help as the Shadows destroy Babylon 5. It is dated eight days into the future. At the same time, on Minbar, Sinclair is given a nine-hundred-year-old letter from Valen, telling him that a drastic action must be taken to prevent that future. 

And then the second part, S3 Ep17 "A War Without End" part 2: While Sheridan is unstuck in time, seeing a glimpse of a future Centauri Prime in ruins, the others continue with their plan to take Babylon 4 back in time.

This is was one of the best two parters on B5 so far. So many amazing call backs to a season 1 episode. It was great seeing Sinclair again and what a twist with him turning himself from human to Mimbar and becoming Valen. And it explains why Delenn changed from Mimbar to human to balance out what he did. So much history about B4 and where it actually went. I can go on and on about these two episodes. Robert and I just kept looking at each other in amazement. I can't wait to go back and watch the episode from season one that involved B4.

This is one of the main reason why I love that this series had one main writer J. Michael Straczynski. He had this story planned out and you can tell through is storytelling. It was great seeing future Londo and G'Kar and watching Londo's vision play out and Vir taking the throne as predicted. I like that we find out that Delenn and Sheridan get together and actually have a son. As I said.. so much awesome in these episodes.

And the final episode of the night, S3 Ep18 "Walkabout": The new Vorlon Ambassador arrives, Sheridan decides it's time to test just how effective telepaths are against the Shadow ships, and Franklin is on walkabout in Downbelow and falls in love with a singer.

After the last two episodes this one had a lot to live up to and if I would have watched this by itself I would have said it was pretty good, but compared to the previous episodes it was just okay. I liked the doctor story, but it wasn't great, I even said to Robert before we started this.. I wonder where the doctor is and then we had him in this story. I actually liked the Shadow/telepaths storyline better and found that much more interesting. They are defiantly setting the board.. can't wait to see what happens next.

Netflix, Broken Plate and Frozen

I got an email from Netflix today requesting me to return and offering me a month of free service. Now that I have a fast internet speed I was happy to sign back up. I perused what they had and man am I screwed. So many TV series that I would love to see. I'm going to have to make a list and just start somewhere and make sure I don't spend days on end watching nothing but Netflix. 

I started putting pictures and collector plates up on my walls in my living room. I didn't want to use nails so I got those command damage free sticker things. They work for me about 50% of the time but this was not one of them. As I came back from lunch I opened the door and a few seconds later one of my Star Trek Hamilton Collection plates dropped to the floor and shattered.

I immediately went to each plate and put an actual nail in the wall to make sure this didn't happen again. This is the third of my collection plates that have been broken over the years. I quickly went to ebay and see if I could get a replacement plate and luckily I found one that was just under $20 with shipping. So I picked it out.

In Frozen news... I came across this awesome video that Disney did with the song "Let it Go" from Frozen. It's the scene but made up of 25 different languages. The song in English is beautiful but hearing it in 25 different languages is amazing. Check it out below:

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.