Random Geek Question and Lucy

So I asked Twitter and Facebook another Random Geek Question. This time it was "What is your favorite Joss Whedon project?"

Here is what I got from Twitter:

@piratescribe  Firefly. Hands down :)

@Ruvio  Dr. Horrible. I mean drama, romance, musical, soliloquy's, NPH, Felicia Day and Nathan Fillion Fuggedubaahhdit

@Josh_TolkienFan dammit! So difficult to choose!!! Gun to my head—I’ll say Firefly.

From Facebook:

Erik Nelson I gotta go with Buffy, even with newer great stuff.

Matthew Luchsinger Angel season 5.

Lorelai K. Perrin Buffy (the movie), Buffy, especially Once More With Feeling, Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog, Firefly/Serenity, Smile Time...honestly everything that man has ever touched is my favorite (trying not to sound like a crazy fan girl...I just really appreciate his art.)

Amy Chickenlips McGee Teplow Buffy forever.

Ginger Potter Buffy, Firefly, Toy Story

Michael Roach Dr. Horrible, then Buffy

Marsia Powers 1. Buffy (Angele is a part of Buffy-verse IMO) 2. Avengers/SHIELD 3. Dr Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog 4. Cabin in the Woods tied with Much Ado 

Jennifer Luchsinger EVERYTHING

Alissa Sheleng Firefly/Serenity, Avengers, Dr. Horrible, and SHIELD.

Sebastiaan Van Dijk Buffy, Firefly, Dr. Horrible. Hon. Mention for Twister and Titan A.E.

Aaron Trahan Firefly/Serenity, Angel, Buffy and Agents of Shield. But with more Agents of Shield it will move up.

Hannah Brown Buffy. But I like everything else too.

So it looks like Buffy and Firefly are the top choices. For me it's a tough call but I think I would have to go with Firefly. Buffy was fantastic but there are seven seasons and episodes were hit and misses.. With Firefly it was only 14 episodes and in my opinion all 14 are must see episodes.

Recently I was watching something about summer movies and saw a clip of Scarlett Johansson in New York were she waves her hands and time stops. I thought to myself.. what the heck is that from. Then I saw something about her new movie Lucy so I checked out the trailer and OMG how did I not know about this. I mean the trailer was released back in April when I was in England but still. This movie looks AMAZING and I can't wait to check it out. If you haven't seen the trailer.. check it out below.

The Hollywood Sci-Fi Museum Project

I just heard about this Kickstarter program and it only has 60 hours left and still need over $25,000 to hit their goal. It's called the Hollywood Science Fiction Museum. Here is a brief description of their project from this Kickstarter page - New Starship Foundation, the nonprofit behind the Enterprise-D Bridge Restoration, with board members including the greatest talents in science fiction, presents THE HOLLYWOOD SCIENCE FICTION MUSEUM. This will be the first museum in the world to exclusively show the history of sci-fi films, TV, art and literature through props, sets and costumes, as well as show advancements in space travel and teach Real Science through Science Fiction. It will be an interactive museum with fully immersive environments and touch screens that will incorporate old and new footage from actors, filmmakers and NASA astronauts and scientists, and will present both the fact and fiction of sci-fi. This will eventually teach Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) based education in a fun new way to all ages. The museum will include exhibits from: Star Trek, Star Wars, Doctor Who, 2001, Alien, Metropolis, Thunderbirds, Firefly, Babylon 5, Battlestar Galactica, Stargate, Blake's 7, Ghostbusters, Farscape, The Time Machine, Godzilla, X-Men, Avengers, Superman, Planet of the Apes, Back to the Future, Day the Earth Stood Still, V, Batman, Six Million Dollar Man, Bionic Woman, Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, as well as Fantasy like Lord of the Rings, Labyrinth, Legend, Munsters, Herbie the Love Bug, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Dark Crystal, Game of Thrones, Anime like Akira and Speed Racer, and anything else we can fit within our walls.

This Kickstarter is to acquire the funds to develop our 2015 Hollywood Sci Fi Museum, which will be smaller than the future museum, but still significant and unique. They want to show that something like this in Hollywood could work. If all goes as planned, the permanent one will be built and open by 2018.

You can go to their website HollywoodSciFi.org for pictures and footage of what they have planned. It's a very ambitious project but if it turns out like they plan it's going to be one of the most amazing places for sci fi and fantasy fans.

(Edit... since I'm late on blogging the Kickstarter is down to 3 hours but I'm happy to say they reached their goal.) You can see there Kickstarter page HERE. I'm happy that I donated and will be a small part this is amazing project.

You can check out a video explaining the project.

Babylon 5 S4 Comes To An End

Tonight my buddy Robert and I finished off Season Four of Babylon 5. We only had two episodes to watch tonight so we started with Ep21 "Rising Star".

Here's a brief synopsis: Marcus reaches Babylon 5 and uses the Alien Healing Device to save Ivanova's life and dies in the process. Delenn launches the Interstellar Alliance; Sheridan is forced to resign from EarthForce to receive amnesty for himself and the rest of his staff. The Alliance is announced in a press conference at Earthgov's headquarters in Geneva, with a dramatic flyover by the entire White Star fleet. In later negotiations with Earth concerning its membership in the Interstellar Alliance, it is revealed that Sheridan has been elected as its first President.

Susan Ivanova is offered the command of a Warlock class destroyer. Garibaldi wins back his girlfriend Lise Hampton-Edgars. Delenn and Sheridan get married on a White Star and return to Babylon 5. G'Kar uses his artificial eye to view the proceedings in Sheridan and Delenn's bedroom.

This episode was pretty much what I had expected. It was a "wrap up" episode. Susan is devastated that Marcus sacrificed himself for her and that she never reciprocated his love. It also looks like she is leaving Babylon 5 as she got her own command.

Sheridan is "forced" to resign from Earth Force but then what was a surprise to me was the forming of the new Alien Alliance and them naming Sheridan as President.. I did not see that coming. I love that Delenn and Sheridan finally got married and are now official a couple.

I wasn't a fan of Garibaldi getting back together with his Ex.. was never a fan of hers in the first place.  I really liked the comradery of G'Kar and Londo, reminded me of their relationship in the first season.

And now the final episode of season four of Babylon 4, Ep22 "The Deconstruction of Falling Stars".

Here's a brief synopsis: This episode takes place after the events of the rest of the series. It shows the long-term effect of the Interstellar Alliance from the point of view of one hundred, five hundred, one thousand, and one million years after the founding of the Alliance.

I couldn't figure out what this last episode was going to be because the second to last episode did a great job at wrapping up everything. I know when they went into making the final episode they thought that the series was going to be cancelled but before the episode aired then were picked up for one more season by TNT so the original "final" episode was pulled and saved for the end of season five and this new one was produced and replaced as the final episode of season four.

It's an interesting look at how history remembers events. I think my favorite of the four time periods was when we visited 1000 years later with the monks. The Earth is devastated and slowly rebuilding itself. And at the end of this segment you find out that the main monk is a Ranger.. that was awesome. And then 1 million years later we see the destruction of the Earth as it's sun goes nova and we see Human evolve into energy and live in encounter suits almost identical to the Vorlons... another cool moment.

Season four was AMAZING.. I know alot of people say it was their favorite and I can agree, though I really did enjoy season three. I don't know what's coming next for season five. I do know that when they thought season four was going to be the end they took season five and combined it with season four and finished off the five year story that he wanted to tell. So season five should be interesting. After season five we have five or six TV movies to watch as well. Lots more B5 to enjoy.

Muppet Babies, Gummi Bears & X-Men

Today I worked on going through more of the toy bins and trying to figure out where I'm going to put all this stuff. I know I'll be selling about a 1/3 of my collection and I'm cool with that but there are still some things that I'd like to keep and display.

My buddy John came by to visit and check out my new place. We got to talking about animated/cartoons that we love, he's a HUGE Looney Tunes fan. It got me thinking about Muppet Babies and Gummi Bears from the late 80's and X-Men The Animated Series that aired on Fox Kids back in the early 90's.

Those are three of my all time favorite animated series. So I decided to see if they were on DVD. I had checked in the past but haven't looked in a while and sure enough neither Muppet Babies nor X-Men were on DVD. There are some episodes of Muppet Babies on VHS but that's it. It does look like they released Vol 1 (seasons 1-3) of Gummi Bears on DVD back in 2006,. but never released Vol 2 with (seasons 4-6).

So I turned to the internets to see if I could "find" them in other formats and sure enough I found all three entire series in digital form, which I downloaded. X-Men looks and sounds good. The Muppet Babies looks okay but the audio isn't the best and Gummi Bears audio and video are pretty bad. Of course I'd rather have them all on officially released DVD/Blu-ray but until that time comes I'll just enjoy the versions that I have.

Visiting E3

Today I went to E3, this was my first time going to this exhibition. I work in the entertainment industry but have never worked in gaming or with games (though I did work on a game show). My buddy Will had a friend with Disney Interactive who was able to get me a pass this year and it was much appreciated.

If you don't know what E3 is here is a brief description: E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) is an annual trade show for the video game industry presented by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA). The event takes place at the Los Angeles Convention Center in Los Angeles, CA.

I took the subway to the LA convention center, once there I went to three different badge pick up places as I kept being sent to another one as they kept saying I was "Media" and that I could only get it at a certain place. Finally the third place walked me back to the second place and got me my pass.

I joined my buddy Robert (who attends E3 yearly, since he works in the Gaming industry). We started in the south building and while walking through the lobby there is this huge display for the new game called Destiny. But I was more interested in the posters for a new Gauntlet. I love this game and even have an arcade version of it. I had no idea that they were revamping it and releasing an updated version. So as soon as Robert and I met up we headed to the WB section to check it out.  OMG it's AWESOME!!! It should be out in the fall and available on STEAM. Watch the trailer below and you'll agree at how awesome it's going to be.

After that we walked around the floor and checked out the upcoming stuff from Disney Interactive, Capcom, EA, Bethesda, Sega and a ton more. I'm not a huge gamer so alot of the stuff I wasn't really interested in but it was cool non-the-less. We visited the indie section and the Video Game History Museum before heading out to lunch.

Once lunch was over to went to the West Hall Exhibits where the big 3 were at. We first did Ninendo, Robert played a few games. We then walked over to Sony and then Microsoft. While at Microsoft we demo'd a game called Project Spark. It's not only an awesome game but it's a world builder. So you can build the game environment before you play the game. Check out this cool video

Robert also played the new Alien game before we headed back to the South Exhibit to play the demo of Gauntlet. I wanted to play the Wizard but Robert took that character leaving me with Elf. Though I sucked at Elf it was still alot of fun and I can't wait to get this game and play with friends.

I left around 5:30pm and headed home. E3 runs three days but I think I was able to check out everything and try what I wanted to try in just the one day. It was alot of fun and I enjoyed myself at E3. It would be fun to make this a yearly thing.

Podcasting Issues & Release

Spent the morning/afternoon emailing Podbean back and forth trying to figure out why I couldn't create a new podcast for my Alien Nation cast. After a few hours it was determined that the issue was my computer and not their website. Now I have to figure out what the deal is and why my computer won't work with podbean.

I was able to upload the podcast I just needed to find a way to post it, so I used my iPad. It wasn't the easiest thing to do but I managed to type out some show notes and attach an audio file to them. It is now available on itunes and other podcast catching apps and devices. It's not a pretty post but it's up and folks can listen, which is the most important part of a podcast.

Alien Nation The Newcomers Podcast Episode 24

Download from itunes http://bit.ly/itunesAlienNation Listen on Stitcher Radio http://app.stitcher.com/browse/feed/32281/episodes or Listen/ Get Direct Download http://Aliennationpodcast.com

Show Notes

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

Today we cover the first of five TV movies: Dark Horizon pt. 1

Directed by Kenneth Johnson
Written by Diane Frolov & Andrew Schneider
Original air date October 25th 1994

Plot Summary: George and Matt continue to investigate the virus killing newcomers, which takes a very personal turn for them. A scout from the newcomers' home world is sent to Earth to determine the condition of their slaves. He decides not only will they take their slaves back, but he begins planning to enslave the human population as well. While the Francisco's face medical and spiritual challenges. Matt makes a decision regarding his personal life and chooses between Lorraine and Cathy.

Star Wars, Gunman and Podcasts

EA announced Star Wars Battlefront 3 and released this "behind the scenes" video today. Now I've never played Battlefront 1 or 2 but I've seen people play them and they look amazing. But what was strange is when I started to watch this video, tears started welling up in my eyes. It made me realize how much Star Wars has effected my life. I mean I knew I loved it and it's what made me the geek I am today but just hearing the main theme song and the narrator talk about their love of Star Wars tugged on the heartstrings. Here's the video that was released.

This afternoon... just a few blocks away ended a high speed chase, the man got out of his car with his rifle/gun and ran down the street. It sounded like a warzone outside as there were helicopters swirling above and sirens in the streets. They informed all of us to stay inside, about a half hour into it the guy barricaded himself into a house and begun a four and a half hour stand off. Luckily for me I have a freeway (170) in between me and the gunman so I wasn't really worried but there are several school in the area and they were on lock down. It was tense for a while but fortunately they shot in some tear gas and the man came out and surrender. Of course it took another four hours to clear the area, they closed down the freeway and it was crazy for a while. I was happy that I didn't have to go anywhere and could hold up in my apartment. But even happier that no one was hurt or killed.

Spent the evening editing the next Alien Nation Podcast. It's due to be released tonight at midnight and of course I wanted until the last second to edit it. I spent about four hours uploading and editing the cast. I got it done just before midnight and went to upload and build the web page for it but ran into some issues.

Podbean, my host sever was having issues. It wasn't allowing me to post a new episodes. I tried for about an half hour before giving up. I figured I can try tomorrow, as long as I can get the podcast posted on the 10th I'll stay on schedule.

68th Tony Awards

Was up early, couldn't sleep so I decided to watch the Tony's from last night. Now I haven't been a big fan of the Tony's and really only started watching last year due to Neil Patrick Harris hosting. But what I found is that, for me, the best part of the Tony's are the scenes from current plays we get to see. Alot of these Broadway/Off Broadway shows will never make it to the west coast and I haven't been to New York in over 15 years. So these scenes that are performed allow me to get a little taste of the theater. Hugh Jackman was great as host, I still enjoy Neil Patrick Harris hosting skills better but Jackman was fun. I especially enjoyed the opening and him hopping the entire time. The fact that it was a four minute, no cuts scene. I love that he acknowledged the camera who did it all walking backwards.

Alot of great plays this year and performances like Aladdin and Les Miserables but two really stood out me. The first one I knew I'd love just because Neil Patrick Harris is staring in it and that's Hedwig and the Angry Inch (btw Neil won for best performance and the show won for best revival musical). Also if you noticed their performance was the only one to get a standing ovation. Here's the Tony performance.

The second performance was actually my favorite of the night and I had never even heard of the play (btw it won best musical for the night) A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder. It sounds like it's a very dark comedy but I just loved this performance and if the rest of the play is like this.. it's full of win. Check out the Tony performance below.

Just Another Ordinary Day

Nothing special to blog about, I did stuff around the house.. blogged a bit and watched the last 9 episodes of Freaks and Geeks. You can see my blog review for that HERE.

I even looked up some geeky things that happen today but there really wasn't anything that I wanted to share with you all.

Guess it's just a lazy Sunday.

Birthdays and D&D

Today was a busy day for me... I was up early and headed out to my brother's for my nephews 5th birthday party. I can't believe he's five already... where does the time go.

The party didn't start until 1pm but I was there around 10am to help set up. My brother and sister-in-law go all out with these parties. So I help set up a canopy tent, the water slid, tables, chairs, streamers, balloons and other Spiderman themed items.

It was a fun time, Kenobi and his friends had a blast. I got to see my mom and aunt who also came to the party, so that was nice. I helped with the presents (as I often do) and also with the cake (I always seems to be the cake cutter). I had planned to leave at 3 as I also committed to play some D&D at 3:30 and didn't want to be to late, but I was having to much fun and didn't get out of the party until 3:30 and home by 5:15pm.

I made it D&D two hours late and jumped right in. It was a packed house, there were people everywhere. I was a bit lost at the beginning but soon got into the story.

This was the start of our 4th adventure... and Dallas (our DM) decided to switch things up and have us play in two different time periods. It was alot of fun. I'm really liking this adventure as it's more of a treasure hunt. Each session we hope to find a new piece of Melzarin's "treasure".
 

Our first big battle was against animated suits of armor and I'm happy to say that my little Halfling Wizard Dash played a big part in taking all four of them down.  Towards the end it looked like Dash was going to be sucked into another plain of existence but his companion did everything they could to help rescue him and thankfully he lives to fight another day.

Here's a synopsis of tonight's session: The Fellowship of the Foaming Mug found itself in chains and on trial, having been in royal custody the past three weeks for a variety of criminal activities. Surprise witness Elward Fletcher was called to reaffirm that he believe everything started with the will of the late Melzarin, as that spurred the companions to locate his worldly goods with newfound vigor some three months past.

Asking around town, got Ginneon a piece of information that Zander was able to expound upon: A greedy gaoler by the name of Gunter was dismissed when one of Melzarin’s rings came up missing from inventory. After laying low for a few months – soldiers and servants who served Edrin’s regime with enthusiasm were actively taken down – he emerged to sell the ring to Jhanto, the leader of a criminal guild called the “One-Eyed Wretches.” Jhanto got impatient with Gunter’s desire to actually be paid for the ring so he tossed him and some other ne’er-do-wells into Melzarin’s glitchy house which was slowly collapsing into the astral plane behind the blind alley of the Whale’s Tale.

Gunter’s wife Alija couldn’t be happier to be rid of her husband or to point the party towards Jhanto. After a few curiously poor verbal missteps from the usually glib Ginneon, it was the rogues who struck a bargain with the One-Eyed Wretches, agreeing to join the gang and keep their eyes by offering up Melzarin’s evil one. Phlig passed over 1,500 silver pieces to bind the deal, to be kept should the party default on its deal.

The party entered Melzarin’s old house and discovered it still mostly intact. They found Gunter, alive but shaken, hidden inside the most impractical privy in the history of Tyryn. They faced animated armor and astral rays, braved the homonymium, witnessed the destruction of Melzarin’s magical hat, and snagged a few choice items from Melzarin’s disintegrating library before making a hasty exit. They barely escaped with their lives.

Gunter proved good to his word and led them to the purple-stoned ring that was left to Tailyn. Among the papers they salvaged from Melzarin’s library, they discovered a letter to the Consortium of Gainful Arcanists from Melzarin, begging them to not repossess his magical cane (an item willed to Dash) in return for his late dues. That seemed as good a lead as any to discover the next item.

My friend Luis (and fellow player) made Lego figures of our D&D characters (Dash is front row, second from left)

Freaks and Geeks - My Review

Took a break from cleaning the house and editing podcasts to watch some TV. Today I figured I'd watch an episode of Freaks and Geeks, I noticed that it was on Netflix. I remember watching an episode or two back in 1999 and I can't remember why I didn't continue watching it but I didn't. It's funny to see so many "unknown" stars back then who are now household names like James Franco, Seth Rogan and Jason Segel. 

I knew I'd like the show and I was right, after the first episode I was hooked and watched half of season one (which is 18 episodes). I could have continued to watch more but I did have to get some work done around the house. Note... I did finished the last 9 episodes two days later.

If you don't know what Freaks and Geeks is here's a quick synopsis: Freaks and Geeks is a TV series that aired on NBC during the 1999/2000 TV season. It's the 1980s and at McKinley High, there's two different groups of teenagers, the Freaks with cool and charismatic Daniel Desario and tomboy Lindsay Weir and the Geeks with Lindsay's shy younger brother Sam, gentle Bill Haverchuck, and self-proclaimed ladies' man Neal Schweiber. The show chronicles the normal teen/adolescence problems any teenager goes through including acceptance, drugs, drinking, and bullying. Eighteen episodes were completed, but the series was canceled after only twelve had aired.

"One of my favorite scenes from the series"

This series reminded me of my childhood.. I was roughly the same age as the "geeky" younger brother and I had friends just like his. I love all the geek references. Though I did enjoy the first nine episodes I LOVED the final nine episodes. They really found the characters voices and just when it was hitting it's stride it was cancelled.

"Another amazing scene from the series"

I think I was a cross between Sam and Bill, but leaning more towards Bill's personality. Some episodes had me in tears from laughing so hard or from having my heart broken. You'd had episodes that lifted your spirits and made you feel amazing, to hating a character so much that you just wanted to stop watching. Some of the characters were annoying, stupid and cliche and others were sweet, kind and generous. They showed a wide variety of different types of teenagers from high school in the 80's and I knew them all.

Maybe that's why I loved this series so much.. it was my high school, my group of friends and my teachers. All I know is I plan on buying the one and only season on DVD. I've added it to my "must buy when I get a job" list. But for now it's available on Netflix.. so if you haven't seen it be sure to take some time and watch... it's well worth it.. especially if you're a teen of the 80's. I give Freaks and Geeks a solid B+

Looking for pictures online I found this Cast "Reunion" picture from a Vanity Fair article back in Dec. 2012. Some of the kids looks the same others I would never recognize.

Frozen, Goonies, Buffy & Firefly Action Figures

Yesterday I saw a post about Funko's new "Frozen" Pop figures. I collect a few of the series, like Star Wars, Goonies and The Hobbit.. but when I saw these new ones I knew they would be a must have as well. They aren't coming out until the summer but many assume as do I that they will premiere at San Diego Comic Con.

So I went and checked out their website and found out that along with Funko there is another company called ReAction and they do 3 3/4 action figures (very much like the classic Star Wars figures). And I was surprised to see what they have coming down the pipeline.

First I was excited to see that Goonie action figures were coming out. Now I purchased the Mezco 7" figures back in 2012 but I'm excited to get this new set of figures.

I also saw some Back to the Future actions figures that looked kind of cool. And some Buffy action figures which I saw a picture of a year or so ago but didn't know what or who made them.

But the ones that got me the most excited were the Firefly action figures. I can't believe I haven't heard or seen a word of these and they are due to be released at the end of June.

Now  you could purchase them from the "funko's" website but they are asking $19.99 (originally $10.99) and though I'm a huge fan there was no way I could pay that much for a 3 3/4 action figure so I searched ebay and found only a few and they weren't cheap. I then checked out Amazon and found four of the five figures there for $10.99 each, though they also said they were $19.99 each, it was very confusing.. but I managed to get the four figures (Zoe, Wash, Kaylee and Jayne) for $10.99 each but the Mal figure was $19.99 and I figured I'd check to see if I could find it somewhere else for cheaper. I mean they aren't out yet so these are all pre-orders.

I also saw on Entertainment Earth they have all the figures listed above available for pre-order for $9.99 each. You can check them out HERE.

Podcasts & Babylon 5

I spent the afternoon recording several Alien Nation podcasts with my brother. This podcast has been on hiatus since November as both my brother and I have been busy, he with his family life and me with the big move and big vacation. But we did manage to get together to do a "listener feedback" podcast last month but this is the first time we will be doing more episodes.

We're moving on to the TV movies, they did five of them. We're splitting each one into two podcasts so today we are recording Ep 24 and 25 which will be released on June 10th and July 10th. We're covering the first of the TV movies Dark Horizon.

The recording went okay.. of course the moment we decided to record the podcast the gardeners down stairs decided to use a weed whacker and air blower. At first it stopped us from recording but my brother had to get home so we moved forward with the horrible noise in the background. Hopefully it won't be to much of a distraction.

During the evening I went over to Robert's house to watch more B5. It's been a while since our last TV night and we had to push it from last night to tonight.

First up with watched S4 Ep18 "Intersections in Real Time" In a bleak room, an interrogator tries to force Sheridan to admit he was under alien influence and worked to undermine Earth.

When this episode started out, I said to Robert.. "Oh I hope this episode doesn't take place entirely in this room with the torture of Sheridan", but sure enough it does and I was pleasantly surprised that I actually enjoyed it. It was tense and hard to watch at times but it was some great dramatic TV. You really got to see what Sheridan was made of.

Then S4 Ep19 "Between the Darkness and the Light" Garibaldi now freed of Bester's influence tries to find allies to free Sheridan. But no one trusts him, not even those who used to call him friend. But Franklin and Lyta take a chance and with the help of Garibaldi try to free Sheridan. Meanwhile Ivanova and Marcus find out Clark has new more powerful ships. They take a contingent of White stars to destroy the new ships, someone will pay a high price for the victory.

I enjoyed this episode. I knew Garibaldi was going to help free Sheridan to restore his name. I really liked Lyta in this episode, when she looks at the Mars leader with those black eyes, it sends chills down my spine... good stuff.

And the final episode of the night S4 Ep20 "Endgame" The battle for Earth concludes as Sheridan leads his forces to Earth to confront Clark's forces in an all out battle. Meanwhile Marcus learns of the alien device Franklin used to heal Garibaldi when he was critically injured. But to save a person's life, someone else must die.

What a great ending to these civil war. Sheridan's reunion with Delenn was great. I also liked that he's still a bit skeptical for Garibaldi... it's gonna take a while before he can trust him. I liked that the progressed the relationship of Susan and Marcus though it was short lived. I really thought that Susan was going to die but once Marcus found out about that alien machine that can transfer lifeforce from one to another I knew he was going to sacrifice himself for her. I'm glad Clark is dead, he truly was a mad man.

We only got two more episodes of this season... can't wait to see where the story goes next.

Big Eden and Beards

After a week of working on cleaning up my place I'm happy to say I'm one step closer. I still have about 20 plastic bins sitting in my living room area and I don't have a clue what I'm going to do with them, but I am happy to say that both my guest/toy room and my own bedroom are clear of all boxes and bins.. woohoo. I still have a few Star Wars action figures that I need to put in my guest/toy room. But once that is done my toy room(s) will be complete. I'll post pictures once everything is up and complete.

While I was cleaning up my bedroom I put on one of my all favorite romantic dramedies of all time "Big Eden". Here's a quick synopsis: Henry Hart is a successful gay artist from New York City who returns to his rural hometown in Montana to care for his ailing grandfather. Henry is welcomed back by the townsfolk, all of whom are aware of his sexuality and are highly accepting and even supportive towards him (the film's plot and dialogue is notably devoid of homophobic content). However, during the months he stays in the town, Henry is forced to confront his unresolved feelings for his high school friend Dean Stewart, while simultaneously being oblivious to the feelings of Pike Dexter, the shy Native American owner of the town's general store.

I have talked about this movie in a previous blog post titled Top 5 favorite "Gay" themed movies. I actually watched it for a second time with commentary and then for a third time just for fun. I mean I was cleaning and unpacking things so for the second and third time I really was just listening to it. Anyways I think why I love this movie so much is because of the idealistic world it is set in. The majority of the film takes place in a small town in Montana where the small town folks are open minded and loving. There is no homophobia or bigotry. There is no hate towards the gay characters, no one bats an eye that it's two men who are falling in love.

Most "gay" themed movies have stereotypical gay characters, or they involve drugs or AIDS. This movie has none of that. These are just "regular" guys trying to find love and friendship. This movie is 14 years old so back in 2000 when it was made this was a big deal, very outside the norm. Nowadays there are more movies that don't have these typical gay cliches, but still not enough. If you haven't seen Big Eden I'd strongly suggest watching it.. be it straight or gay I think it a great story that will touch your heart.

So I've been growing out my beard since I started my trip to England/Ireland a few months ago. I don't know what I'm going to do with it. Everyday I think about shaving, especially since it's getting hotter outside. But this is the longest that I have ever had my beard. I'm actually impressed with the way it looks. It's good to know that I can grow a full beard with no patches. I'm thinking I'll be keeping it at least until San Diego Comic Con. If I cosplay as a Hobbit then I'll have to shave it but I'm not sure if I'll be cosplaying this year or not. So for now I'll let it grow out and see how far I can go.

Maleficent, SWTOR and RGQ

My Maleficent contest ended yesterday at midnight and I'm happy to say that it was a good turn out. I wrote down every person name who entered and gave them a number. I then used a random number generator and pressed the button five times to get five random winners. I have "direct" messaged them on Twitter requesting their address so I could pass this information on to the company who is sponsoring this contest. Thanks to all who entered.. I hope I can do more of these in the future.

Played 3 hours of SWTOR (Star Wars The Old Republic) with my buddies Chris and Brett. We hadn't played in a few weeks so I'm glad the three of us were able to find time and get a few hours of game play in. I hope it's not another two weeks before we get to play again. I'm really enjoying my character (Jedi) and I'm not able to wield two sabers... it's pretty awesome.

I posted a Random Geek Question on Twitter and Facebook: What is the one horror movie that you could never watch alone? For me it would be Blair Witch Project... I remember watching that with a few friends and it scared the hell out of me, I don't think I could ever watch that alone. Here are some of the responses I got from friends.

From Facebook:

• Ryanne Harding - Never seen one I can't watch alone! I loooooooove me some horror movies.

• Gabe Gebhart - The Ring really got me when it came out in the theater.

• Eva Chan - Not sure since I'm not a huge fan of horror in general. Probably a lot of them.

• Maggie O'Neill - I did watch The Exorcist alone- when I was 13- and babysitting on Halloween. It was stormy out and they only had one channel for reception. N-E-V-E-R A-G-A-I-N.

• Chris Clemente - Blair Witch is up there, I agree. Been lost in the woods as a kid and it's terrifying. I think the first Paranormal Activity is pretty damn freaky, kept me up a little.

• Bryan Dunn - ALIEN.

• Kasey Ryan-Pierce - All of them. Just...all of them. o_o

From Twitter:

@yensid98 - To my mind horror movies are best viewed alone to maximize the scares.
@Aradinsc - Glad I am not the only one with that answer. I have never really enjoyed horror movies or anything scary really

@hxcofficemonkey - I haven't come across one that scary yet. :( 

@MarkusHunt - Paranormal Activity 1 or 2 as you're sat in a house just like they are *shudder* @MattJSour - The Exorcist or Rosemary's Baby 

@bonk_of_37 - Candyman and Event Horizon

@MikeHockjr - It's always been Halloween for me. I saw the first movie when I was 8 and it scared the crap out of me

@beckotronic - The Ring.

@Ruvio - any. I'm a huge wuss. You know that! :p 

@amy_geek - For me, it's pretty much all of them.

Voting and Fitness

So I voted today. I have voted in every election since I turned 18. Most of the elections I do my due diligence and review all the democratic candidates and various propositions. If I'm not able to do that I tend to stick with what the California Democratic party suggests on their websites.

It's sad to me that turn out for these elections are extremely low, roughly 25 - 35% here in California. I guess most people either don't care or don't feel their vote counts. But they are very happy to bitch and complain about taxes, politicians, etc. It just doesn't make sense to me.

I finally put up on Facebook some items that I'm trying to sell. Several tables and an elliptical. They are currently sitting in my carport and I need to get them out of there ASAP.

I'm continuing my NoHo park running. I did three laps (roughly 3 miles). Before my England/Ireland trip I was able to job (slowly) around the entire park three times. But now that it's been a few months since I did that I'm slowly building my strength back up. I job about half the park then walk half the park. I hope to be able to job the entire park soon.

Star Wars Pixs, Geekies, Knight Hoodie & Bronies

TMZ released some "leaked" behind the scene pictures from Star Wars Episode VII. I think it was a controlled leak. JJ is to smart to let anything really leak. The pictures don't really show much. If you want to check them out you can see them HERE.

I started judging the podcast and vlogs for The Geekie Awards. I already took care of the cosplay entries as there weren't to many but the podcast category has over 60 entries. I got through about 1/3 of them so far. I have until the end of June to listen and score them all.

I came across this AWESOME hoodie that I would so get if I had a job and money. It's defiantly going on my list of things to buy.. it's pretty FANTASTIC!!! It's a bit pricey at $99.95 but it's so unique and I've never seen anything like it, I think it's worth the price. You can check out the website HERE.

Today I watched Bronies: The Extremely Unexpected Adult Fans of My Little Pony documentary. I have several male friends who are Bronies and I wanted to see what this was all about. This is
a 2012 documentary film centering on bronies, the adult fans of the 2010 animated television series, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. The film, funded through crowd-sourcing via Kickstarter, was originally envisioned to follow voice actor and executive producer John de Lancie to the 2012 Summer BronyCon in New Jersey. The project raised much more than anticipated, allowing it to grow in scope to include additional convention footage from European conventions.
  
I have seen alot of these "fan" documentaries and them portraying the fans in a "not so good" light. But I have to say that this one was the complete opposite. It was thoughtful, fun, and entertaining. I enjoyed all the guys those chose to feature. And by the end of the documentary I wanted to be a Bronie myself so I could join this amazing community.

Organizing & Weight Gain

Since I set up my toy/guest room I stored all the extra bins and boxes in my living room and my bed room. Today I started cleaning up those areas. Of course what you think will take a few days is going to take you a few weeks... I can't wait until this entire move is completely over and everything is in it's place.

So if you follow my blog on a regular bases you know I've struggled with my weight my entire life. Last year I weight in at a whopping 217lbs. It's the heaviest that I have ever been. I yoyo'd back and forth between 205lbs and 200 for the longest time but finally broke the 200 mark and was down to 195lbs before I left for England/Ireland. When I got back from my trip I was up to 200lbs and it's now been a month since then and I'm up to 205lbs. I don't now what's going on. I feel like my weight is just out of control.

So today I started to jog again. I jogged/walked 3 laps around NoHo park (that's about 3 miles). I'm hoping to do it everyday... Hopefully I can get back into that routine and start losing weight again. I know working out is only part of the problem. My diet has been horrible since I have been back. That's going to be key in losing weight.

I'm so disappointed in myself for going above 200 which I swore I would never do again. Combined with not having a job the past year has lead to this current bout of depression.

Busy Day and Adding to My Collection

Had a busy day today... started by cleaning and organizing the stuff down in my carport area. Since I have a two car tandem spot and only one car I have a large area that I've been using for overflow from my apartment. Mostly empty plastic bins and boxes but there are some small pieces of furniture and my elliptical down there. Management hasn't said anything about the stuff being there but I wanted to better organize it so it look less cluttered and presented better. So I spent about a half hour down there cleaning up.

Afterwards I came up stairs and turned on the TV while eating breakfast and The Day After Tomorrow was on. About halfway through the movie my apartment shook. At first I thought.. "oh it's an earthquake" but then there was this big jolt that got my heart racing. For a moment I thought "is this the big one, should I get to a doorway". It was a 4.2 out in Westwood which is about 10 miles south east of me. Earthquakes don't normally raddle me as I've experienced them my entire life being from SoCal but this one did. It might have been because I was watching a disaster movie I don't know but it scared the heck out of me.

I decided to get some fresh air and head out to run some errands. First was lunch then Target to pick up a birthday present for me nephew. While at Target I found some really cool pants that were on clearance. If you know me you know all I wear are blue jeans. I recently have been looking to get a pair of khakis to mix things up. Though these two new pair of pants aren't khakis they are not jeans and kind of a funky color, red and blue.

While at Target I also developed some pictures that I had taken while a guest speaker in a class of that a friend of my is the teacher. I took 15 pictures of kids wearing my Hobbit feet. Told the kids I would get the pictures to them before school is out (which is soon).

Headed to Toys R Us to see if I could find some Maleficent items. I was there a few weeks back when I took my Dad shopping for a birthday gift for my nephew and saw that they made these really nice looking Maleficent dolls. Well now that I have seen the movie and obsessed over it, I had to see if I could find those dolls. I actually found one of the three that I was looking for.

I headed to another Toys R Us to see if I could find the other two but had no luck. But next door to the Toys R Us is a Costco and my nephew loves fortune cookies so I thought I would stop by and grab him a huge bag of them. Well I have never been to a Costco on a Sunday afternoon and now I know why. It was packed with rude people. Everyone was out for themselves and didn't care who they hit or blocked and I only lasted ten minutes before I forced myself not to kill someone with my bare hands and left the building.

When I got home I checked Ebay to see if I could find the other two Maleficent dolls and I did. They were actually being sold by Toys R Us via Ebay and they too were on sale like the one I had gotten earlier so I picked both of them up.

Collecting is an addiction.. and for the most part I can control myself, but sometimes I just say screw it, and this was one of those times. These pieces will be a great addition to my collection.