Superman, Sherlock and Katies B-day

Picked up my best bud Chris from the Burbank airport this morning, he's here for LOJ this weekend.. we came home and hung out for a bit. Lydia arrived from Switzerland around mid day and I showed her my place. She'll be my "roommate" for the next 34 days.

Several geeky things I wanted to share with you guys.. first of all they released an image of Superman's new outfit for the upcoming Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice movie. I have to say I really like this new look. It's similar to the Man of Steel costume. So if you didn't like that one you're probably not going to like this one. I'm really looking forward to the next Superman movie. I loved the new Man of Steel movie.. all the haters can hate.

My friend Bonnie posted this article that she had written on CNET about some upcoming Sherlock and Watson 1:6th scale dolls. They look pretty spot on and if they weren't $285 each I would consider getting them. Please be sure to read more about them in Bonnie's article HERE. If you are interested in pre-ordering them you can do that HERE. Maybe one day they'll make less expensive figures for poor people.

During the evening, while Lydia crashed from jet lag, Chris and I hooked up with Dallas and Jes and took the redline to Hollywood & Vine to attend our friend Katie's Birthday party. She was celebrating at the Parlor Room where our friend Rileah bartens. Since we took the redline none of us had to drive and my buddy Chris said he would buy me drinks (since I'm jobless and poor) so I took advantage of his generosity. It was a fun evening, I got to see friends that I see every once in a while like, Kim, Adam, Jared, Ari, Derrick and a few others. I made a few new friends and had a great time celebrating Katie's 30th with her. 

By the end of the night I was drunk having had three shots (1 Jameson, 2 Fireball) and three Vodkas and Cranberries. And since it was Rileah making them for us she was very generous with the alcohol.

We left the party around 11pm (last train runs at midnight) and stopped for some fried chicken and fries, which was much needed after all the alcohol. We then jumped on the 11:41 train and made our way back to North Hollywood. I got home around midnight and called it a night. 

Prepping for House Guests

Today I prepared for house guests. My buddy Chris is coming into town tomorrow for LOJ (Labyrinth of Jareth) and my friend Lydia is also coming into town for vacation and SDCC. Lydia will be staying with me while she is here. Chris might be staying with me a night or two. Either way I wanted to get my house in order.

First I had to make some room in my toy/guest room for Lydia's stuff. So I moved a few things around and also moved some stuff around in the closet so she could hang a few things. Out in the living room I had my extra 15 plastic bins full of collectables so I moved them to my bedroom and stacked them up next to my bed. I'd rather have them in my bedroom out of the way of the general living area.

With those gone I was able to put together to two Ikea bookshelves that my buddy Chris got for me for a housewarming gift. I have to say they look great with all my geeky books displayed on them.

All I have left is to put up all my awesome Jason Palmer prints and my framed map of Middle Earth and the living area of my house will be done.

By the end of the day my apartment was ready to host two house guests.

Cool Posters, Fox Fumbles & Dinner

So I woke up around noon and I was sore. I guess being a zombie and attacking people is rough on this old body. But it was still an amazing experience.

I came across these on Facebook and had to share with you guys. Of course if I had the money and the wall space I'd pick up a bunch of these. These are metal posters and they don't really cost that much, $44 if you consider it being a piece of art. They have a Superman one that I think I'll get anyways as I just love it. Check out their website HERE and see all the other amazing superhero metal posters that are available.

In other "this doesn't surprise me" news.. Fox cancels ancient Egyptian fantasy show Hieroglyph before it airs. They ordered 13 episodes and finished the first with several others in the early pre-production stage. Fox didn't give any reason as to why it was cancelled. What's strange is that Fox has really been promoting this one and then suddenly stopped. Maybe because it's set in ancient Egypt I can see it costing alot of money to produce, and if they didn't like the first episode and figured they'd cancel it before putting more money into it.

More and more networks are approving series without a pilot, as they did with this one. If they would have done a pilot first to see if the concept worked then they would have known that it didn't and never approved it for a series in the first place.

I'm disappointed that it was cancelled as it was a series that I was interested in watching this fall. But when it comes to Fox they don't have the best track record in supporting Fantasy and SciFi series. (Alien Nation, Firefly, John Doe and so on).

During the evening I had dinner with my friends John and Moises. Moises made chicken, mash potatoes and corn. It was all very tasty. While we ate we watched 9 to 5. That's one of my all time favorite comedies.  It was a good evening.

My Zombie Life Pt.2

So around 2 am all the Zombies are done and we are ready to film. My make up still looks great and I'm ready to do this. Greg went around to each of the "primary" zombies and gave them directions on where to stand and where to go. I was the fourth zombie to attack Marissa's character and the one that was going to finally take her down so I started off camera and staggered my way over to the other three who were already attacking her. We did this three times before they decided to move me to be one of the three who initially attacks her.

So now I'm crouched down on my knees near a headstone with my fellow zombie Donna and we pop up from below the camera and attack while another stops her from backing away and the fourth (which use to be me, comes up and attacks as well). We did this over and over for another 12 takes for a total of 15 takes.

Since this is a 360 film there are no cuts, no close ups and everything needs to happen in order and with perfect timing. If one person misses their mark or screws up the entire take is wasted. Afterwards I heard the producers say that they got three really good takes and they will use one so those for the final film.

It was now around 4am and we were wrapped. A group of us stayed round to shot a promo for the film, It was basically all the zombies surrounding the 360 cameras and reaching out toward the middle. After the promo Greg wanted to get a picture ala Thriller so he put on his Michael Jackson jacket and had all the zombies surround him.. the final product turned out great.

Once we were done with that, all the zombies headed to make up and wardrobe. The make up line was huge and lead make up guy wasn't the friendliest as he told us all to get out and that they would get to us when they got to us. While standing outside I started to pull on my prosthetic and slowly but surely and with a few painful moments I managed to peel it off my face.

I hung around for another half hour and chatted with some folks before calling it a day and heading home. Luckily for me I only live about 10 minutes from the Barnyard so I was home and in the shower in no time. The make up took some hard scrubbing to get off. My face felt a bit raw afterwards.

I was in bed by 5:30am, hoping to get a few hours sleep before I started my day. Luckily I didn't have any plans until later in the evening.

Overall it was a FANTASTIC shoot. It was fun being turned into a Zombie. And if I had to do it all over again I would. Thanks Greg and company for letting be part of this very fun experience.

My Zombie Life Pt.1

Went to my friend Greg Aronowitz's place The Barnyard to be an extra in a Zombie short that he was creating with my friend Kim Evey, It's called Zombie 360. I got there around 3:30pm for a 4pm call time. I sat around about a half hour with other extras when they brought over some "base" paint and asked if we could get started on painting ourselves.

So I started with some green and added a bit of yellow and purple and was about fifteen minutes into it when they asked us to stop as some of us were going to be chosen for prosthetic. I was fortunately one of them. Greg picked out a prosthetic that he thought would work for me and then I was asked to go wash my face as they needed it to be completely clean to put on the prosthetic. After washing my face I went and sat back down with the extras for about fifteen minutes but soon my name was called and I headed to one of the make up artists so he could glue the prosthetic onto my face.

Now I have been an extra many times but never have I had to wear a prosthetic on my face and I was excited for this opportunity. He first tested my skin to make sure I wasn't allergic to the latex or glue. Afterwards he placed the prosthetic over my face and made a few cuts here and there so it would fit better before getting out the glue and gluing the prosthetic down.

It's an interesting feeling having something glued down to your face. Of course as soon as it's on you want to itch but can't. But luckily the feeling passes. After he glued it on to my face we waited a few minutes to let it dry. I did find out that the glue that they used was super strong as they didn't want to have to re-apply during the actual shooting. The only way to really get this off it to use a chemical that will break down the glue.

Once it was dry he asked me to make faces and move my face around to see if any of the ends would raise up. There were a few spots so he applied more glue. He then placed "bondo" around the edges to make them seamless. I've used bondo before with my Hobbit ears. Anyways after that he was done, the prosthetic was on and I was ready for full make up.

Before moving on to full make up I went to wardrobe and handed over some jeans and a shirt for them to "zombified". They tore, ripped and dirtied up my clothes before giving them back to me. 

I headed into Greg's house where they were actually doing make up and waited. I waited for about three hours as there were only two make artists and then down to one working on Zombie make up. Greg came in from time to time to work on of the more high profile people in this film like Grant Imahara. Also the main cast members were coming in and getting their make up done. Pushing out make up back.

Eventually everyone was done and they got to the extras. As the make up started she really was having a hard time trying to figure out what kind of zombie I would be.. and for about 20 minutes she tried various looks when suddenly you could see the light bulb go off above her head and wham.. Zombie Kenny came to life. 45 minutes later I was done.. The end results were amazing. I love the look she gave to me.

While I was getting made up, America Young (stunt coordinator) came to me and said that I had been chosen to be one of the Zombies to take down the last human (Marissa Cuevas). Woohoo!!

Once they were done with my make up it was about 9pm and time for dinner. We were suppose to start shooting around 9pm but the Zombie make up was taking alot longer then expected.. there were over 55 zombies and about half were high profile, meaning they had to have really good make up. The other background zombies were self painted with some help from the make up artists.

As midnight approached they were still working on making up the zombies. I had been in my prosthetic since 5pm and full make up since 9pm. My face was starting to itch and I found out that the make up doesn't really come off by just touching it so I was able to kind of put pressure on the prosthetic which would kind of relive the itch under it.

The waiting continues as the clock strikes midnight...

Diet Soda Success, Disney Paintings & Transformers

I did it... I have gone seven days without drinking a single diet soda or any soda for that matter. It was rough, as I normally drink 2 to 3 diet sodas a day (especially when I'm home). But I stuck it out and didn't give in to temptation. Now this doesn't mean I'm going to stop drinking diet soda, but I have decided that I will not have any diet soda/soda in the house. I'll only drink it on occasions when I go out to eat. Who knows maybe one day I'll give it up completely but for now I'm happy to do a major cut down of my daily intake.

I came across these on Facebook and thought they were amazing. Check out the artists other "real life" Disney paintings HERE.

Since Transformers 4 is out in theaters FX was doing a Transformers marathon airing all three of the previous movies. If you read my Transformers 4 blog a few days ago you'd know that I had never seen part 3 "Darkside of the Moon", so I recorded it and watched it today. I'm not going to review it. I'm just going to say that it felt like all of the other Transformers movies. The story went on for way to long. The film could have used some major editing. But the effects were amazing, I really liked the characters, both humans and transformers. I now know what "big battle" they were talking about in Transformers 4. And like with all the other movies. I'm glad I saw them and find them very entertaining.. the perfect popcorn movie.

Superhero Flasks, Star Trek and Who

My friend Amy tweeted about these awesome flasks. Now I'm not a huge drinker but I'd still like to have a few of these... if I had to choose just one I think I would pick Superman as he is my favorite superhero. Which one is your favorite? You can check out the rest HERE.

Now if you know me you know I love Star Trek. I've seen every TNG, DS9, VOY and ENT  episode, as well as all the movies but I don't think I've seen all of the original Star Trek episodes. I know I've seen alot of them, especially when I was little as they aired them in syndication all the time. I don't have a clue how many of the episodes I have actually seen of the series.

So when I saw that they had these on Netflix I figured I'd give them a go. I watched the pilot episode which of course had an entirely different cast (other then Spock). I then watched the first few episodes of season one and though some of the effects and acting is a bit cheesy I really enjoyed them. So much so that I'm planning on continuing my watching of TOS. I may try and review episodes on this blog from time to time. Let me know if you'd be interested in reading those.

And finally... BBC America announced the premiere date of Doctor Who season eight. You can watch the video below... can't wait!!

 

Once Upon A Time Season 3

So I finished watching Once Upon A Time season three 2 hour finale. Here are my thoughts on the second half of season three. I wasn't sure what they were going to do with this second half as the end of the first half really felt like the perfect end to the series. I was surprised that we picked up one year later and everyone is back in Storybrooke with no memory and Emma and Henry were happily living their lives in New York. Then everything changes with the arrival of Hook. At first it felt like a redo. I mean we spent two and a half seasons trying to break this curse, which they do. Only to be cursed again and start all over. But as the series continued it gave us bits and piece of information and finally towards the end we find out that it was Snow White and Charming who actually re-enacted the curse to get back to Emma and unfortunately the Wicked Witch found out and added the memory lose as part of the curse.

I also liked the way that they brought back Rumple. I mean I knew he wasn't going to be dead forever but I didn't expect Neal to die for him. That was a heartbreaking scene and brought me to tears. I enjoyed all the back stories of the characters and the missing year stories. I really thought this season really connected the dots well.. reminded me more of season one, which I loved.

They finally break the curse again and this time it's Regina who breaks its with her love for Henry. I have to say I really like what they have done with Regina, she's trying so hard to not be evil and finally succeeding... well that was until the season finale... boo!!

With two hours left of the season I thought when Emma and Hook went back time that, that was going to be the set up for the next season but I'm happy to say that it wasn't. They finished the entire story within those two episodes. And of course Emma saves a woman who Regina was going to kill and since she was suppose to die in the past they figure if they bring her to the future all will be well. Yeah it didn't quite work out that way and poor Regina is the one what get's burned as the woman they brought back was Maid Marion, Robin Hoods wife and Robin Hood and Regina were finally becoming a couple (as it was predicted that they were each other's true love). Well now that's over and Regina is pissed!!

The final scene of the season was a bottle opening up and blue liquid pouring out and forming into a women that we all know as she was part of one of the biggest movies last year, Frozen. We then see Else walking away from the camera and that's the end. The Ice Queen is in Storybrooke and Evil Regina looks to be coming back.

Over all I really enjoyed Season three. It was broken into two part, the Peter Pan quest in part one and the Wicked Witch in part two. Both were enjoyable but I think I enjoyed the Wicked Witch storyline batter then Pan.. other then the end.. the ending of Pan was amazing.

Can't wait for Season Four!!!

Paramount, Screening and Transformers 4

Started my day with breakfast with my buddy Dallas. I picked him up around 8:30 and we headed to Denny's. Afterwards we went into Hollywood and to the Paramount Studio lot for a PGA (Producer's Guild of America) screening of Transformers: Age of Extinction.

Paramount has one of the best screening rooms in town so when I read that the screening was going to be there I was super excited. We got to Paramount around 10am and drove up to the main gate. We gave them our ID's and they checked us off the list and explained where to park.

After parking we made our way to the theater. I love walking onto studio lots, it's awesome to think about all the film and TV history associated with the lot. So many amazing movies and TV shows have been filmed here at Paramount. As we were approaching the theater there were men building a Bumble Bee Transformer outside.

We got in line, fairly close to the front. We stood there for about 45 minutes and the line grew. We were finally let in and found out that the screening was in 3D and Paramount has those super high techy 3D glasses with little batteries in them. The last movie I saw in this theater was Tin Tin and it also was in 3D so I knew we were in for a treat.

We found some prime seats and chatted for about 20 minutes or so before they started the movie.

I have seen Transformers 1 & 2 but never got around to seeing 3. I wasn't sure if that would have any effect of me understanding 4. But I figured it was Transformers and that series is not known for it's amazing storytelling. I also knew that it was a new cast taking the reigns. And I'm happy to say you really don't have to see 2 or 3 to watch 4. They kept referring to a "great battle" in Chicago, which I assumed was from movie 3 but that's about it.

Here's my thoughts on the new Transformers... it's a Transformers movie and if you have seen 1, 2 or 3 then you know what to expect. It's all about the eye candy and this movie has plenty. I would say that there is more "story" then crazy action scenes, especially at the beginning. But towards the end it's nothing but action and fight scenes.

As with the second movie and I heard the third movie. This movie could have used some editing down. It runs about 2 hours and 50 minutes and at times it feels like it.

I enjoyed the ride, I liked Mark Walberg and Stanley Tucci's characters. The story was good and the action scenes were great. I remember watching the first movie and being so confused on who was fighting who but with this movie there aren't many Transformers left and the ones who are left look fairly different so the fight scenes were easier to follow.

If you enjoyed the other Transformers movies then you'll enjoy this one. I give Transformers: Age of Extinction a solid B.

When we got out of the movie the full size Bumble Bee was up and folks were taking pictures with him so Dallas and I joined in and grabbed a few shots of us with the giant Transformer. After the movie we headed over to Astro Burgers for lunch.

Vacation Blogging and OUAT

Spent half the day blogging about my vacation, I'm currently up to Day 14 of 34. So I'm not even half way there. These are taking alot longer to write then I had originally expected.
 
But it is a lot of fun remembering all the details of the trip and going through my thousands of pictures looking for just the right ones for the post. I hope to have is all blogged and done by the end of July. I figured if I can get a few day everyday it shouldn't take me that long.

Spent the other half of the day catching up on more Once Upon A Time. I watched five more episodes today. That leaves me just the 2 hour finale to watch. As I mentioned in a previous blog post I plan on doing a full review of season three once I finish watch the season, which I'm hoping to do tomorrow.

Other then those two things it was a pretty uneventful day.

Podcasts and Fairytales

I spent half of the day working on podcasts. First I finished editing my next MASH 4077 Podcast episode 82 which will be released July 1st. I think this is one of my favorite episodes. There are some podcast episodes that I think are good but something about them is just a bit off. This is not one of them... the conversation just flowed and the clips fit in perfectly for what we were talking about. Looking forward to releasing this one.

I also did the first edit pass on the next Alien Nation: The Newcomers Podcast. My brother and I have finished season one and are now going through the TV movies. We're splitting each TV movie into two podcasts and today I worked on part two of our Dark Horizon episode. Hopefully I'll finish it in the next few days as it's due to be released on July 10th.

Spent my evening watching Once Upon A Time. I have 10 episodes recorded on my Tivo from last season so today I watched three of them. It's still one of my favorite series on network TV. I'll do a full review of the season once I finish watching the remaining 7 episodes.

Beard, Matt, Mockingjay & B5

Well I took the plunge and finally shaved down my beard. I was trying to keep it until SDCC at the end of July but the beard got the better of me. I debated on going clean shaven (which I only tend to do during SDCC because I cosplay as a Hobbit) but I think I look better with a hint of a beard so I kept some. I had that beard for almost two months.. it's the longest I have ever grown it. I kind of liked it so it may make a re-appearance at some point.. but for now I'll stick with the shorter version.

I got to chat with my buddy Matt via Skype again. I always look forward to chatting with him. I met Matt through the Guild a few years ago and actually got to meet him in person in April when I was visiting England. He and I just hit off. We only hung out for a few days but from the moment I met him I had this feeling of protection, he felt like a little brother to me and I look forward to each and every Facebook messenger chat and Skype call.

The next Hunger Games movie Mockingjay Pt. 1 has started it's promotional bombardment, they release propaganda posters for each district and this very cool President Snow PSA.

Tonight was TV night with my buddy Robert. We're starting the final Season, Season Five of Babylon 5. We watched the first three episodes before calling it an night.

First up was S5 Ep1 "No Compromises" Captain Lochley arrives just as preparations are underway for Sheridan's swearing in ceremony as the President of the newly formed Interstellar Alliance. Telepaths arrive seeking a sanctuary while they search for a home world.

I'm not sure how I feel about the new commander of B5, I miss Ivanova. The jury is still on on the telepaths. I like Sheridan's thinking, having them on their side but will have to wait and see what happens. I know from a previous episode that there is a coming Telepath war. I really liked G'Kar in this episodes.. I mean he's fantastic in all of them but this one was particular fun.

Then we watched S5 Ep2 "The Very Long Night of Londo Mollari" During a heart attack, Londo experiences an epiphany and apologizes to G'Kar. Lennier leaves Delenn and Babylon 5.

Londo's redemption episode. I don't know if his character is redeemable as he has done so many bad things the past few years. But I'm glad to see him finally taking responsibly for his actions. I like that he finally said he was sorry to G'Kar.

I hate to see Lennier go but I understand why he had to do it. Delenn obviously loves him, just not in the same way that she loves Sheridan. He's a favorite of mine so I hope he comes back to visit from time to time.

And the final episode of the night S5 Ep3 "The Paragon of Animals" Military crises threaten the ongoing formation of the InterStellar Alliance, but Sheridan asserts its power. A small world plagued by raiders begs the alliance for help. Garibaldi tries forming an intelligence unit of telepaths.

Now I'm really not sure about those telepaths on B5. They pretty much hate all "mundans" non-telepathic people. I was happy to see Lyta back but sad to see the path she might be going down. I was surprised that the raiders wound up being a key member of the Alien Alliance. And once again G'Kar was fantastic with his enthusiasm towards the morality document. And I'm happy to see the Londo and G'Kar have their love/hate relationship back.

Overall a great start to season five, as I mentioned I think the big story this season will be the Telepath War but I don't know when it will start... so I'm just enjoying each episode as the come. 

A Typical Day!!

I always laugh when I get responses to my tweets, blog and Facebook posts saying "Oh you live the life I want to live" or "I wish I had your life". Yes I do some fun things from time to time but that's all you guys see/read about and is normally just a few days out of the month. I don't tweet, blog or Facebook about the other 28 days of the month when I am sitting at home, bored, lonely, frustrated, struggling to motivate myself to be productive. So I have decided to blog about my typical average day so you guys would understand that my life isn't all fun and games that my online persona would lead you to believe.

I wake up around 7am and will lie in bed playing a few games on my phone. I'm out a bed by 7:30 and on my computer checking emails, Facebook and Twitter. I then spend about a half hour going to the various "job" sites looking for a work. 99% of the time there is nothing and frustration sets in.

I then make breakfast and will normally watch TV while I'm eating. Now this is were things can vary. Depending on what's on TV/Tivo recordings I can sit there for a half hour (if I'm lucky) to four/five hours, until lunch time.

If I was lucky and managed to pull myself away from TV I tend to work on blogging (I always seem to be behind) and/or Podcasts. I currently only have two in production (MASH 4077 & Alien Nation). So that is 3 episodes of a month (2 MASH, 1 Alien Nation).

I'm currently blogging about my vacation, I've blogged 9 of the 34 days. Because I try and be as detailed as possible it takes me about an hour or so to do one blog. And by the time I'm done with one I take a break from the computer and usually watch some TV (hopefully don't get stuck watching hours of it).

When I edit podcasts those can take me four to six hours to edit and I normally go through stages with those so I do my initial edit pass, then add audio clips from the discussed episodes and finally a third pass to "sweeten" the audio (add blends and such to make it sound good). I do tend to take breaks between each pass.

I normally will eat lunch anywhere between noon to 2pm. Again I normally watch TV while eating so I do my best to not get sucked into another four to five hour stent.

After lunch I go back to podcasting/blogging until around 6pm when I eat dinner.

At 6:30/7pm I go across the street to the park to do my 45 minute to an hour workout/jog/walk.

I get back home around 7:30/8pm and relax on the couch or check emails and such before I Skype chat with my buddy Erik. Erik and I Skype chat nearly every night from 8:30pm to 10pm. We either watch TV together (something we recorded) or catch up on each others lives. It's something I look forward to everyday. Being able to interact with another human being is awesome and it's Erik so it's even more special.

By 10pm I'm tired but I will jump online and finish up a blog or continue editing a podcast until around 11pm

I'm normally in bed by 11pm and I watch an episode of the Simpsons on my ipad before falling asleep around 11:30pm

That's a typical day in the life of Kenny. Of course things may vary. I might not feel motivated all day and just be lazy and watch TV. Or I can be very motivated and productive and do five blog posts and edited a podcast in a day.

So that's what I do 28 days of the month, 336 days a year.

Disneyland & Middle Earth Cake

Today I went to Disneyland with my buddy Brett... his season pass expires this Thursday and he's not sure if or when he'll be able to renew it so he wanted to do one last hurrah. So we arrived around 10am and was there until around 5pm. The place was packed and it was so hot outside. We went to DCA (Disney California Adventure) first for a few hours before heading over to Disneyland. Both parks were crowded as I expected. Though the parks stayed open until 10pm/Midnight we were spent by 5pm and called it a night. Good times were had as usual. It's always nice to take a break from life and spend a day at the happiest place on Earth.

While at Disneyland my friend Josh posted a picture on Facebook that was posted by Thinkgeek. At first I thought it was actually books and though to myself.. wow those are some nice looking Middle Earth books.. I need to get me some, but then I read the title of the pictures and come to find out that it's a cake. An incredibly amazing looking Lord of the Rings / Hobbit cake. I don't know who made it or for what occasion, but they did an FANTASTIC job.

Regardless I don't think I could actually cut into that cake. I had a hard time cutting into my Borg Cube cakes that were made for my commitment ceremony back in 2008.

D&D Adventure Continues...

D&D Pathfinder: Here's what happen in today's session.

So a few days after the destruction of Melzarin’s mansion, the party found themselves invited to the heaviest lunch ever by Naheer Al-Zhameen, reportedly a representative of the Consortium of Gainful Arcanists who might have some word on Melzarin’s cane. The party dined and talked and, eventually, a formal invitation for Dash to join the Consortium was extended. Sensing that the initiation fee was perhaps a bit steep, Naheer offered instead for the party to look into Dark Delights – a nefarious black market of goods and entertainments for the Orthstaden evil elite – in exchange for waving the initiation fee and for the cane, if in fact it had been surrendered to the Consortium. The party agreed and also allowed Sireen, a companion of Naheer’s, to join them and act as his eyes and ears.

They went to a tavern called the Horny Goat near the Trades District to try to glean a little information about Yanick’s Meatworks - the supposed front for Dark Delights - and learned a little. Ginneon bought the bloody apron from a butcher who may or may not have eaten his firstborn child and sauntered up to the gates of Yanick’s to see if he could gain entrance as Neki the Butchomancer. It didn’t work but Ginneon did get an idea of what kind of crowd they were expecting for that night’s festivities and the rest of the party did get a look at the layout thanks for Phlig.

Inspiration struck and the party dressed up as decadent nobles with Ginneon providing most of the disguise duties. They hit Yanick’s and made it inside the gate with the help of something close to the password and a bribe and, soon enough, made it into Yanick’s abattoir.

A magical alarm made to ferret out any goody goods who might try to pass through the cold room gave the party away and a fight ensued. Butchers were properly butchered, ice mephits and golems were cut into shards, and two apprentices at the Meatworks barely survived. The party laid a charm on one of the kids and sent them off with the other to the castle while they descended into the depths.

Yeah, it was all pretty evil. Fresh corpses were for sale and faeries were deboned live and thrown on the grill. There was a fat guy selling forsaken children out of a crate. Powdered unicorn horn, an illicit auction, and captive Halfling fighting for their lives. It was out of control.

What will the party do next?

So ended the session, it was another fantastic game. We went nine rounds of fighting with the Butchers, guards, ice mephits and ice golem (which was by far the hardest thing to kill). We had several characters unconscious and near death several times. And now were in the middle of all this evil and Dash is about to lose control. The frying up of faeries was horrific, but when he saw his brethren being forced to fight to the death that push him over the edge... it's time for justice!!!

I want to thank our DM Dallas who amazes me every session with his imaginative story telling and adventures. Can't wait for the next one.

Dinner with Anne & A Movie in the Park

Today I got to see my friend Anne who I haven't seen in a while. She lives down in San Diego and isn't up here that often so when she was planning a trip up we made sure to set some time aside for us to meet up and have dinner. We tried a local BBQ place that I had never been to. It turned out to be pretty good.  It was great catching up with her. Hopefully it won't be months before we see each other again.

During the evening they were showing a movie in the park... the North Hollywood (or NoHo) park which just happens to be right across the street from my apartment. So of course I had to go. Joining me for this adventure was Jen, Sean, Robert and Cait. They were showing Jurassic Park. It was suppose to start at 7:30 but it was still way to light outside so they pushed it until 8:30pm. They gave out free popcorn, chips and water. They screened the movie on an inflatable movie screen.

My buddy Sean was shooting some PSA's for the city with the new unofficial mascot for North Hollywood, the NoHoBot. Which is this really cheesy looking robot that Sean made but I have to say the kids loved him. He helped pass out popcorn and chips.. it was very amusing.

There were over a hundred folks out there with us, laughing, ew-ing and ah-ing along with the movie. It was a fun experience. Though next time I'll know to dress warmer as the sun goes down so does the temperature.

They plan to do this once a month, I look forward to seeing what the next movie will be and hopefully I can get more friends to join in the fun.

Surprise gifts

The past few days I have gotten several "surprise" gifts in the mail.

First my buddy Erik sent me some really cool stuff. I was talking to him last week about beard oil and how expensive it is for such a small amount. He mentioned that his friend Donna actually make personal hygiene products and that he thinks she might have a kind of beard oil that could work for me. I said that I would look into it but this week a box arrived at my front door and I opened it to find some sandalwood bar & liquid soap, sandalwood beard oil and some peppermint lip balm. There was no note but of course I knew who it was from... Thanks Erik for this awesome gift... BTW I love the beard oil.

The second surprise came from my buddy Ken Todd. He mentioned it to me a week ago that I might be getting something (for a very early birthday present) and he couldn't pass up shipping it early. So today I got that in the mail. It's this amazing and beautiful 20th Anniversary Babylon 5 Visual Companion book.

I haven't finished the series yet so I haven't really looked over the book as I don't want to spoil anything but I can't wait to crack it open and read it from beginning to end. Thanks Ken for always being so generous.

Judging Podcasts & Uploading Vacation Pictures

I spent the day preforming my duties as a judge for the upcoming Geekie Awards. I was a last minute replacement judge last year for the Geekies in the category of Podcasts. This year I am judging Podcasts, Vlogs and Cosplay. There were over 80 entries for these categories. I had done the coplay entries a few weeks ago and I started working on the podcasts/vlogs, but I was far from finishing them all. Since judging has to be done by the end of June it didn't give me much time to finish them all so I set aside part of today to do that.

I have to say there are so many great podcasters out there. I've always thought my podcasts were well done and that I was a fairly competent podcaster but man some of these hosts sounds amazing (great radio voices). The production values are fantastic and the podcast concepts themselves are interesting. I'm definalty going to have to step up my game to compete in the big leagues.

I also spent a big chunk of today uploading vacation photos. I've decided to break the over 5000 photos down into small groups for each particular thing. I currently have photo albums on Facebook for Edinburgh Castle, Sherlock Holmes, and Stonehenge. There are still so many more pictures that I hope to get up on Facebook in the next few weeks. You can click on the links above to see the pixs even if you're not on Facebook.