Hanging with my Padawan

Today my buddy Troy came over for the weekend. We had planned to shoot his SAM-e Good Mood Blogger video entry but something come up and he wasn't able to get to our place till around 3pm and we had plans to go see Darren Criss in LA at 7pm. So we wound up hanging out at the house a few hours eating lunch before heading down to LA for the concert. Darren Criss is an up and coming musician/actor. His came to fame was playing Harry Potter in a You Tube video A Very Potter Musical, which has gotten over 3 million views. He stared playing clubs and recent was cast as a semi-regular on Glee. Anyways Troy is a big fan of his and I thought it would be fun to experience something that Troy likes. I mean since he is my Padawan and I have been teaching him the way of the Geek..it was only right for me to have him teach me something.

Got to the Mint and had a great time watching Darren preform. He's got a great voice and is on the rise. After the performance he was selling CD's, shirts and other DC Stuff.. I bought Troy and I a CD and got in line to have him sign them and take a picture with him... it was a fun time.

Afterwards we came back to my place and played around with my new webcam program that allows you to take fun pictures of yourself.

After that we hung with Harry and just chatted while watching a little TV until 2am.. when finally we sent to bed since we had to be up early the next day to shoot his video.

Kenny Vs. The Woodpecker

I was woken up at 7:30am by the tap, tap, tap, tapping on my bedroom wall. I jumped up put on some sweat bottoms and ran outside to kill that woodpecker.. but of course the moment you get close it flies off. This is the first time I have seen the new damage that this bird has done since last weekend and it's getting worse.

We've tried shiny things to deter the bird, we've tried bird repellent  and nothing is working. I know they said it's tough to get rid of a woodpecker but there has to be a way other then killing it (which I am close to doing).

Couldn't got back to sleep so I got up and filled in all the hole with wood puddy and plan on hanging CD from the roof and hope this will detract the pecker from pecking. I can tell this battle is far from over.. but in the end I will win one way or the other.

Tixs for Midnight Showing of Harry Potter!!

Finally got around to getting tickets for a midnight showing of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Was really surprised how many places were sold out already. I mean I know it's a week until it comes out but I didn't expect so many places to be sold out. I finally found some tickets at AMC 16 in Burbank. Got 3 tickets, one for me, Harry and my Padawan Troy.

Plan on wearing my Gryffindor robes, tie and scarf. Good celebrate the beginning of the end in style. If you live in the LA area and want to join us on Thursday Nov. 19th at 12:01am in Burbank let me know.

Happy Birthday Mom

Today is my Mom's 56th Birthday.. yes if you do the math I just turned 40 a few months ago that would make my Mom 15 years older then me.. well now 16 years older. She had me when she was just a baby.. we've always been close because of that.

Happy Birthday Mom.. Love you!!!!

A Healthier Me - Day 89

Well I forgot to blog this, this morning.

Today's Workout:

1 hour of cardio on the elliptical

Woo hoo I did a full hour of cardio today. Started off slow but got into a rhythm and was feeling pretty good.

My Crazy New Schedule

So now that I'm working again I've come up with a weekly schedule that seems to be working and will be my schedule for the next seven months.

6:30am - Get up, eat something quick.
6:35am - Go out to the garage to work out for about an hour.
7:30am - Take the dog out for her morning walk
7:45am - Take a shower and get dressed
8:00am - Jump online blog/check emails
8:15am - Eat Breakfast
8:30am - Leave for work
10:30am - Arrive at work and start my day
10:30am to 7:00pm - Work
7:00pm - Leave work for home
8:30pm - Arrive at home
8:45pm - Eat Dinner
9:00pm - Depends (hang out with Harry, watch TV or emails/blog
10:30pm - Bed

Of course this schedule if very flexible as I may have to stay late at work, or need to stay up late to work on a podcast or catch up on some TV. I also want to see some of my friends after work.

My weekdays schedule is packed and things that don't get done during the week will spill over into the weekends. I expect visiting with friends and family, blogging, podcastings, TV watching, house duties will mostly be done on weekends.

I hope I survive this!!!!

A Healthier Me - Day 88

I'm liking this getting up early and working out before work. When I get home after a long day normally around 8:30 I'm exhausted and so happy that I don't have to go work out. Of course getting up super early isn't fun but I think I'm getting use to it.. but it's only been three days.

Today's Workout:

30 minutes of cardio on the elliptical
3 sets of 10 on the chest fly for my chest (75 lbs)
3 sets of 10 on the curl arm for my biceps (45 lbs)
3 sets of 10 working on my back (75 lbs)
3 sets of 10 for shoulders (45 lbs)
3 sets of 10 on the front leg press (45 lbs)
3 sets of 10 on the free weight (110 lbs)


Plan on upping my reps next week to 4 of each.

Nominate Knights of the Guild

Hey Guys, please take a moment and nominate my Knights of the Guild podcast for a 2010 podcast award.

http://www.podcastawards.com/index.php?option=index

You can nominate Knights of the Guild twice and I'm trying to get everyone to focus on two categories. People's Choice and Entertainment.That way we might get lucky have actually become a nominee.

Don't forget our website is http://KnightsoftheGuild.com

I'd really appreciate the support... Thanks!!!!

A Healthier Me - Day 87

Once again got up at 6:30am to work out. Today is only a cardio day

Today's Workout:

45 minutes of cardio on the elliptical

Not bad should have pushed myself to do a full hour but opted to stop at 45.. oh well 

1st Day on the Job (MTV)

Today I got up at 5:30am to work out  then got ready for my first day with MTV. Left the house around 7:30am and got to work at 9:30am.. yep.. two hour of wonderful traffic, but I expected that so it wasn't huge surprise. I am going to see if I can come in a bit later and shave off 30 to 40 minutes off my commute.

But I got into work at 9:30am and met the new line producer Liz. She then introduced me to the new PA Johnathan and then took me over to another building where the post department would be. There were two edit bays that were set up and my lead AE Johnny was already getting to work, he's pretty awesome and I'm extremely happy to have him on my team.

Don't have an office, computer or desk yet but I hope to get all that settled in the next couple of days. Today I hung out in the AE room and helped Johnny try and makes heads and tails of the pilot info.

All in all if was a great first day, going to have challenges but my team is coming along nicely. Other then the extremely long commute, thought coming home I found a pretty good route and it only took me an hour. I'm extremely happy with this new gig.

A Healthier Me - Day 86

Starting my new job today so I got up super early 5:30am to work out.  Not sure I will continue to get up early to work out.. but wanted to test it out. This is the first time I'll be working out in the morning. Up till now I've been working out late at night. I'm hoping by working out in the morning it will give me loads of energy throughout the day.

Today is Monday and that means weight in day.. Currently 207.5

Today's Workout:

30 minutes of cardio on the elliptical
3 sets of 10 on the chest fly for my chest (75 lbs)
3 sets of 10 on the curl arm for my biceps (45 lbs)
3 sets of 10 working on my back (75 lbs)
3 sets of 10 for shoulders (45 lbs)
3 sets of 10 on the front leg press (45 lbs)
3 sets of 10 on the free weight (110 lbs)

Unfortunately I didn't lose any weight, but at the same time didnt' gain any from last Monday. I actually weight myself everyday and I did get down to 205 mid week. Oh well the fight goes on. My new challenge is not eating out for lunch everyday now that I have the new job.  Wish me luck!!!

Hanging with my Padawan

Yesterday my Padawan Troy came over to hang out with Harry and I. First we hung out and chatted, then went out to dinner at Outback Steakhouse and had a really great dinner. After that we headed to the super market to get some lemons and limes as we wanted to try those miracle fruits. So when we got back all three of us tried it and had some lemons, limes, salsa and broccoli. We video taped the entire thing but nothing really happened so I don't think I'll post it. The lemons were a bit sweeter and the limes and salsa had a sweetness to them but the broccoli was still horrible.

After that Troy showed me some videos on YouTube that he wanted to share. We then recorded a piece for my upcoming Knights of the Guild podcast and finally we chatted and chatted and chatted. Harry, Troy and I stayed up until 5am (really 6am but time changed early this morning) talking. Troy wanted to drive home though I protested as I was exhausted and tired but he on the other hand said he could make the hour and a half drive home. He is 20 years younger so he left and Harry and I went to bed. Didn't sleep that well and woke up at 7, 9 and finally just got up at 11am. And now I'm super tired and not sure what my plans are today.

I had planned to go down and visit my Dad, Bro, Sister-in-law and nephew but both Harry and I haven't been feeling 100% and don't want to get the baby sick, plus being sleep deprived on top of it isn't really helping me feeling any better. I could go hang out with my buddy Will which would tons of fun but I have to see how I'm feeling in a few hours. Plus this is my last free day before starting my new job tomorrow and I need to be up at 6:30am, leave my house by 7:30am to get to work by 9:30am... and that's if I work out after work. If I work out before work I need to be up by 5:30am.. uggg.. good times ahead.

Another Harry Potter Clip

WB has been releasing scenes here and there the past few days. Only 12 days to go before the next installment of Harry Potter comes out called Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 1. The more I see of this the more excited I get. Check out the latest clip.. so intense...

A Healthier Me - Day 82

Today was just my cardio day.. didn't go as long as I would have liked but I haven't been feeling so hot lately.

Today's Workout:

30 minutes of cardio on the elliptical

Duty Calls

Got a call a few hours ago from my next gig with MTV. They asked if I could start working on Monday.. yeah this coming Monday. Of course I said yes but man I was bummed. I've been out of work for almost seven months and the bank account / savings has taken a HUGE hit and I've been under alot of stress to find work. When I accepted this MTV gig they told me it wouldn't start until the end of Nov, possible beginning of December and I was cool with that because it meant I would have a few weeks to a month off with no stress. Well that all came to an end with that phone call. And to be honest it's a good thing as we need the money and I have been out of work for seven month. Now I just have to get back into work mood, going to have to figure out my new workout schedule, podcasting, visiting with friends and family and everyday up keep around the house.  I'm excited to start this new adventure at MTV and see what the future holds for me.

But until then I'm going to enjoy these final few stress-free days...

A Healthier Me - Day 81

Because of being pulled into a podcast earlier tonight I got to my workout a bit later then usual but still had a really good workout.

Today's Workout:

30 minutes of cardio on the elliptical
3 sets of 10 on the chest fly for my chest (75 lbs)
3 sets of 10 on the curl arm for my biceps (45 lbs)
3 sets of 10 working on my back (75 lbs)
3 sets of 10 for shoulders (45 lbs)
3 sets of 10 on the front leg press (45 lbs)
3 sets of 10 on the free weight (110 lbs)

The Forcecast podcast kept me company tonight.. good times.

Tonight's "Podbombed"

Tonight I went to listen to my buddy Sean Becker on a podcast that he was being interviewed on. They do there podcast live and have listener interaction via the chat window on ustream... which is pretty cool. Anyways I get in there about an hour into the show and hear Sean talking.. but he wasn't alone Guild uber fan Dani and Brett Sheridan (Mr. Wiggly from Guild) was also in the chat being interviewed... next thing I know the host Chris sees me in the chat room and asks if I want to join in. Of course I'm not going to say no as it sounded like they were having lots of fun. So for the next hour and half we chatted about everything, old tech, Guild, conventions and so much more.. it was totally crazy and fun. Before we got off the line Sean said something about being "Podbombed", in reference to folks who jump into other people pictures (photo bombed)..thus coining a new phrase.. so Dani, Brett and I "Podbombed" Sean on Tech Barbarians Podcast.

The podcast isn't up just yet.. but should be up in a few days... You can check out the show here http://techjives.net/tech_barbarians/

It's Good To Be Blue

So the country just shifted once again. This isn't new to me I mean over the past 22 years (since I've been able to vote) we have gone back and forth over and over again. Yesterday most of the country turned Red (Republican) but I'm happy to say that I still live in a true Blue state. Not only was Meg Whitman not able to buy a governorship, but Fiorina wasn't able to buy the Senate seat.

Being gay is who I am and doesn't define me but when it comes to elections it plays a bigger role in who and what I vote for. Of course there a lot of other issues but nothing is more important then my civil liberates to be able to live the life I was born to live. Now that the GOP has taken control of the House of Representatives many of the LGBT measures are in jeopardy, measures like the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, lifting the Defense of Marriage Act, or repealing of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, in the past Republican-controlled chamber has never passed a major piece of pro-LGBT legislation, and all three expected incoming leaders have terrible records on issues of gay and transgender rights. So the next two years look to be very bleak for the gay community.

Not all is bad for the Gay community, more openly LGBT candidates won election to public office in the U.S. in 2010 than in any year in America’s history. So you have to take the good with the bad and will continue to fight for our civil liberates.

A Healthier Me - Day 80

Today was a very late workout due to he election results.. been watching them all day and I actually wasn't going to do my workout (cardio only) but then I got a tweet from my buddy Andrew who said that my working out had really inspired him to continue going to the gym. It motivated me to get my butt up and actually get out and do my cardio.. Thanks Andrew for the motivation.

Today's Workout:

40 minutes of cardio on the elliptical

Do you appreciate what you have??

I'm not sure why this hit me all of a sudden, maybe it's because I just turned 40 and realize that my life is half over (if I live to the average age of 80) but that's just it. There is no guarantee that I will live another 40, 20, or even 10 more years. No one knows how long they will be on this Earth. And I've always had the mindset of appreciating what I have and enjoying the life that was given to me but in recent years kind of lost my way.

It's not about work, or making money, or acquiring material things it's about making those lasting bonds of friendship you have with others. It's about enjoying the company of people that you just love to be with. It's about experiencing life with those you surround yourself with, because that is what life is all about.. at least for me.

Friendship to me is about giving a big hug to someone you haven't seen in months/years. It's about seeing a friends smile and how it just brightens your day. It's about discussing your life, the ups and the down. It's about having a shoulder to cry on when things seem at their worse. It's about feeling comforted and loved with no words exchanged. I am fortunate enough to have those kinds of people in my life.

The past few weeks I have made real effort to re-connect with my friends. I actually made pacts with some of them that we have to see each other at least 3 times a month and 1 of those times needs to be "just hanging out" time, not doing a lunch or dinner but enjoying ones company. I know it sounds stupid to have to make a pact but with all our lives being so busy and crazy at times you need  to do things like this to really make sure it happens. Of course pacts are just words and it still takes effort to follow through and so far I'm doing pretty good.

One question that I have been asking myself lately is if I died tomorrow would I die a happy man, would those around me know how much I truly love and appreciated them. I would hope so, but I must make a greater effort to verbalize it. There is nothing wrong with saying I love you to your friends, they may know through your actions how much you care about them but it never hurts to say it out loud.

Appreciate every moment you have with them  because you never know when it will be your last.

A Healthier Me - Day 79

Monday Weigh In: 207.5

Today's Workout:

30 minutes of cardio on the elliptical
3 sets of 10 on the chest fly for my chest (75 lbs)
3 sets of 10 on the curl arm for my biceps (45 lbs)
3 sets of 10 working on my back (75 lbs)
3 sets of 10 for shoulders (45 lbs)
3 sets of 10 on the front leg press (45 lbs)
3 sets of 10 on the free weight (110 lbs)

Yeah I gained half a pound from last week, but I weight myself every morning and was down to 205.5 mid week but obviously gained a few more pounds since then. But I'm still hopeful to lose enough to get below 200 by the of the year.

Comic Con 2011 Internet Woes

So today at 9am PST Comic Con opened up it's 2011 registration. Though I get a professional pass and hopefully a guest pass (get those on March) I didn't want to take any chances and pick up 2 more just in case as my brother wants to go next year and normally you can buy up to four more pass but over the years they have really started restricting what "pros" can do. So I was there at 9am clicking on the site and going no where. Twitter started to buzz as everyone was having issues, some were not getting on the website some were in between stage 1 and 2 but no one was able to finish and actually get tickets. After an hour and forty-five minutes Comic Con put upon their website "Please check back on the 8th of November for information on the new registration date."

Yep the pulled the plug on there ticket sales, the servers couldn't handle the amount of traffic as every year San Diego Comic Con gets bigger and bigger and sells out faster and faster. So they shut down everyone and I'm not sure a single person actually got a ticket. Now we have to wait till next Monday for them to tell us when tickets will go on sale. You would think that they would get there act together and have a big enough sever to handle the volume on ticket sales.. I mean SDCC didn't get huge over night, and since they already sold out of 4 day passes with preview night at this years con (first time ever) it should have been a sign of things to come. Let's hope when the open the lines back up they have these issues fixed... Geeks are for the most part quiet and sweet.. but get them angry and look out!!!!

Happy Halloween

Today we went to our friends Tom and Evin's Halloween Party. Tom has this every year where we watch cheesy horror movies and enjoy the company of friends. Of course I wait till the last minute to try and dig up my Harry Potter costume out of the garage as it's been packed away since we moved last year. Luckily I found it and was able to dress up for the party.. really any excuse to wear my Hogwarts robe is good for me. Harry opted not to dress up. We got to Tom and it was great seeing some friends we haven't seen in awhile. We snacked and visited until the movie came out. It was a Hammer films with Christopher Lee called "Dracula A.D. 1972" and of course we horrible. Best part about going to this part are the comments everyone makes during the show... after the show Martin started a Time Warp dance and got several people to join him. It was a lot of fun.  They started a second movie but Harry and I called it a night as we had a long drive home. It was a great nights of food, friends and cheesy movies.

Check out some pictures from the party HERE

A Healthier Me - Day 77

Yep.. worked out on a Saturday, to make up for not working out last night (Friday). Had a long day at MTV and when I got home I just couldn't motivate myself to get out there and work out.. And even though I'm not feeling the best today I did manage a pretty good work out.

Today's Workout:

30 minutes of cardio on the elliptical
3 sets of 10 on the chest fly for my chest (75 lbs)
3 sets of 10 on the curl arm for my biceps (45 lbs)
3 sets of 10 working on my back (75 lbs)
3 sets of 10 for shoulders (45 lbs)
3 sets of 10 on the front leg press (45 lbs)
3 sets of 10 on the free weight (110 lbs)

Had my Forcecast Podcast keeping me company, they were discussing the latest Clone Wars episode.. so much goodness in one podcast.

Another Day at MTV

Today my next gig ask me to come in and work on the post schedule again. Of course I knew on Wednesday that the schedule I worked on all day would be useless and I'd have to do it again. And once again they had no shoot schedule and if they don't know when they are going to shoot I can't schedule when the shows will go into edit, as I need footage to edit with. So I got some possible shot days and worked on schedule after schedule trying to make it work and each time coming up short... 10 hours later I was still unable to get the schedule to work and finally told them it was impossible. And truthfully it doesn't matter because when they finally do get a shoot schedule the post schedule will change again. 

I also found out that I may be starting early December instead of last November, which I don't mind. I mean I've been off for over six going on seven months but not having a job and looking for work is very stressful and you're not really able to enjoy the time off.. Now I have the entire month of November off and can enjoy the time off because I know I have a job in December.

Knights of the Guild Ep 21 pt2

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Show Notes:

Here it is Episode 21 part 2 of Knights of the Guild. We hope you enjoy it.

Today’s show features:

* First up we have a Classic Vorkism

* We are recording this weeks podcast live in studio

* We discuss Behind the Scenes of Season 3 Episode 9 Wit's End

* We have another great fan interview with Troy Butcher

* Guild Something with Sean Becker
* We thank our donors.
* Then Business Time (We continue to use contest submissions, Thanks Megan, Jennifer, James, Donica, Jerod, and David)
* Then our Good byes

Thank you again for all your support, we do this podcast because we are fans and more importantly for the fans.

Kenny & Jenni

Other Important Links

• Knights of the Guild Feeds/Downloads http://knightsoftheguild.com/
• Knights of the Guild Daily Blog http://knightsoftheguildpodcast.blogspot.com/

A Healthier Me - Day 75

Today was my cardio workout day and I normally do a half hour to an hour of cardio but I'm having some major tooth aches and I did do a hour long hike earlier today with my friend Jeff and figure I did my cardio then.

Hanging with Jeff Valdez

Today I spent the day with my buddy Jeff Valdez, who's here from Philly. He came out for Blizzcon and has been hanging out since. I first gave him a tour of our property, then took him to Vasquez Rocks to go hiking. After that we came back home and picked up Harry and headed out to lunch. Wanted to take him somewhere they don't have alot of on the east coast so we went to El Torito and had a nice lunch.


After lunch we headed back home and hung out for a bit, we then did a fan interview for my Knights of the Guild podcast and chatted a bit more before saying our goodbyes.

It was a great visit and appreciate Jeff taking time out of his busy schedule to come visit me.

A Healthier Me - Day 74

A very late late late workout.. because I went into work and didn't get home until after 8 then had dinner, I didn't get to work out until 11pm.

I did something to my hip tonight, not sure what it was.. but I suddenly had this sharp pain in my left hip. Think I may have twisted the wrong way. But I still got out there and and worked out... though I only did 15 minutes on cardio as my hip was hurting to much to do the full 30.

Today's Workout:

15 minutes of cardio on the elliptical
3 sets of 10 on the chest fly for my chest (75 lbs)
3 sets of 10 on the curl arm for my biceps (45 lbs)
3 sets of 10 working on my back (75 lbs)
3 sets of 10 for shoulders (45 lbs)
3 sets of 10 on the front leg press (45 lbs)
3 sets of 10 on the free weight (110 lbs)

My MTV Job

Yesterday I got a call from my next employer asking I could come in today and help them with the post production schedule, I of course said yes. It's at MTV down in Santa Monica which is about an hour drive from my house with no traffic and if you know LA there is "never" no traffic so I expected an hour and a half to two hour drive. I got up early and left my house at 8:45am, and as expected traffic was horrible and I did my best on getting off the freeway and taking side streets but in the end it took my about one and a half hours to get there.

Once there I found out the person who got my the job and the one I was suppose to go the post schedule with was out sick. They really didn't have anything planned so I had to start from scratch and build a calender in excel which I've used on previous shows and really liked how it worked out. That took me until after lunch about 1pm to finish building a nine months calender. Once that was done I got some info but not all the info I needed to make a proper calendar so I started to build a calender which I know I'll have to change completely but at least it's something. Around four the production coordinator came by and took me to get my pass so  I can get in the buildings and parking lot. I finished around 6:30pm and left at 7pm. They wanted me to come in tomorrow but I have plans so instead I'm going in on Friday to finish it up, hopefully they will have all the info this time.

Other then the long drive the office and people are great and I'm really looking forward to getting started full time at the end of Nov.

A Healthier Me - Day 73

Today's Workout:

1/2 hour of cardio

Only got a half hour of cardio done today, not really feeling it tonight and struggled to get a half hour done but I'm glad I got at least that much done.

Have my good days and my bad days.

Harry Potter Film Wizardry Book

A Healthier Me - Day 72

Almost forgot to workout tonight.. around 10:30pm it hit me.. crap today is Monday and I need to work out.. so I got out there and had a great workout.

It's Weight in Monday and my current weight is 207 which is the lowest it's been since I started working out. 7 more pounds to lose before the end of the year to reach my first goal.

Today's Workout:

45 minutes of cardio on the elliptical
3 sets of 10 on the chest fly for my chest (75 lbs)
3 sets of 10 on the curl arm for my biceps (45 lbs)
3 sets of 10 working on my back (75 lbs)
3 sets of 10 for shoulders (45 lbs)
3 sets of 10 on the front leg press (45 lbs)
3 sets of 10 on the free weight (110 lbs)

Increased Property Taxes

Got our property taxes yesterday and realized they were due at the end of the month.. not sure what I was suppose to do as our property taxes are part of our mortgage that I pay every month. So I called Bank of America to ask. Good thing is they were aware of them and planned on paying for them by Nov. 1st. Bad thing was when she told me the amount $1139.25 twice a year, which was last years amounts it wasn't the same amount on this new statement. It is now $1895.94 twice a year. .that's about $1500 more a year in property taxes. And because of the increase our monthly mortgage is going to have to go up to cover the taxes. Now I have to wait for BofA to get back to me and let me know how much it's going to go up.. I'm expecting at least $125 extra a month, which is going to hurt us. I plan on calling the Assessor's to find out why the taxes went up to much from last year but in the end there really isn't anything I can do, I mean we have to pay property taxes, whatever amount they are.. Thank goodness I have a new job on the way.

Hanging with Will

After spending some hours with my friend Anne I went over to my best bud Will's place. It's funny we've known each other for over two years but I have never been to his apartment. I went over to not only visit him but to also help him upload Avid to his home computer. We accomplished that in a few minutes, he also transferred a bunch of TV and movie files from my hard drive.

A day before his Xbox gave him the ring of death so when I got to his place he was in the middle of trying to fix it. He asked for my help and I say sure.. I pretty much held the flash light as he did the work.. but I held that light pretty good. :) We got to a certain part and found out that we had the wrong washers so we headed to Lowes and Home Depot looking for the correct ones... though I wasn't able to hang out longer I had a great time spending a few hours with one of my best friends in this world.

Anne, Hollywood & Potter.. oh my

Today my friend Anne from New York and I got together for the first time. Anne's a friend from the internet and she is in town for Blizzcon (Gaming Con). She had never been to Hollywood so I decided to play tour guide. We walked around Hollywood Blvd, checking out the stars and the hand prints at Mann's Chinese Theater. We then went to Hard Rock Cafe, which wasn't there when I visited Hollywood the last time. After Hard Rock we went to Hollywood and Highland and concluded out tour with hitting he a few souviner shops.


Anne is also a Harry Potter fan so of course I couldn't pass up taking her to Whimsic Alley (Harry Potter Store) in Los Angeles. So we spent an hour or so walking around Whimsic Alley checking out all the cool Potter goodies. She purchased a wand and book of spells for her mom (who's a huge HP fan) and once again I came out empty handed which I have to say was very difficult.

It was a great 3+ hour visit, she is as sweet and funny as I expected and I can't wait to visit New York so she can be my tour guide.

Hanging with my Padawan

After the Fanboy Funhouse shoot I went to have dinner with my Padawan Troy. I texted him when we got out and asked if he knew of any places that he wanted to try. He said he heard of this place called Philipps, he said he had sandwiches. I'm not one for trying new places but I figured hey what can it hurt. I sent me the address and it's in downtown, downtown LA. I get there around 5pm and luckily they have parking in back so I park and wait. Troy arrives around 5:30 and we head into this place and it's PACKED!!! We get in line and the only food they have are french dips (come to find out that it's the birthplace of french dips). So we order a sandwich and coffee cake and sit down. We ate our sandwiches which wasn't that great and enjoyed the coffee cake, both agreed that we wouldn't come back. We sat there for about 2 hours chatting about everything.. it's was awesome. We then went to my car and sat in my car until 10pm talking. The restaurant closed then and we moved our cars out onto the street and continued to enjoy ones company until 1:30am at which time, I'm sure we could have stayed there all night chatting, but I had to get up early the next day (or I guess later that day) to hangout with my friend Anne who is in from New York. So we said our goodbyes and made plans to hang again soon.

It was a great end to a fun day. Never thought I would sit in a car for seven hours talking. We talked about anything you could think of. I got to know my Padawan a little better as well as he go to know me a little better. That's one great thing I love about Troy and my relationship is our ability to just be in each other's company and not really have to force a conversation, it's just flows naturally. He also had fun drawing on my fogged up windows. --->

I chose wisely when I selected my Padawan!!!!

Fanboy Funhouse

Today I went out to Culver City to shoot an episode of Fanboy Funhouse, hosted by Nar Williams .I'm a huge fan of Nar Williams and was very excited that I was going to be a guest on his show. How this happened; Jenni and I were talking one day while recording our podcast and I mentioned that I thought Nar was pretty cool. She then said "hmm maybe I can get Knights of the Guild on the show". I thought it was a cool idea but didn't think it would happen.. well a few days later she emailed me and said Nar said yes, he loves the idea of interviewing us as "fans" and creating this podcast about the Guild, I was so excited!!!! He asked if we could get a Guild cast member to join us, to get their reaction to having fans like use on set doing a podcast. Since the cast are our friends we figured we could get one of them to join us.

Well I get there about 20 minutes early (though my GPS took me to a Home Depot parking lot).  A few minutes later the special cast member showed up (gonna keep that a secret as long as we can) followed by Jenni. Producer Roth then came down to take us to the studio. Once there we meet everyone, it was a very small but warm group of people. They took us into make up and then we went over what we were going to talk about. We started the interview and it went great. I was extremely nervous as I work behind the camera and mic not in front of it, but I felt very comfortable while being interviewed and talked quite a bit (which was unexpected).

After the interview we did the outtro for the show and then we shot our entrance for the show. If you've never seen Fanboy Funhouse guests enter down a slide. Now when I got there Nar jokily said can't wait to see how you come down the slide as many folks have done various things and try to one up each other.. so I of course felt the pressure. So our special Guild guest did it, then Jenni and then it was my turn. I decide to do it head first on my back, so sliding backwards. They were all shocked that I was going to do it that way as I was the first and Nar said this may be the best way any guest had entered. Well I slide down the slide and landed hard on my back (kind of knocked the wind out of me) I didn't realized that the couch you fall onto was about a foot from the end of the slide, but the cameras were rolling so I quickly sat up and bounced next to Jenni with a smile on my face until they said cut...

All in all it was a FANTASTIC shoot, great crew, great host and lots of fun. Can't wait to see the edited episode. Should be out in November I think.. I of course will let you know via my twitter, facebook and this blog.


http://fanboyfunhouse.craveonline.com/

A Healthier Me - Day 68

A nice workout and a great way to end my workout week.

Today's Workout:

30 minutes of cardio on the elliptical
3 sets of 10 on the chest fly for my chest (75 lbs)
3 sets of 10 on the curl arm for my biceps (45 lbs)
3 sets of 10 working on my back (75 lbs)
3 sets of 10 for shoulders (45 lbs)
3 sets of 10 on the front leg press (45 lbs)
3 sets of 10 on the free weight (110 lbs)

Vlog for Thursday - Interviews, KOTG, Working Out

A Healthier Me - Day 67

Love listen to The Forcecast when doing my cardio it really does make the time fly. Did a full hour of cardio with on problem.

Today's Workout:

1 hour of cardio

A Healthier Me - Day 66

Great workout today.. felt great.

Today's Workout:

30 minutes of cardio on the elliptical
3 sets of 10 on the chest fly for my chest (75 lbs)
3 sets of 10 on the curl arm for my biceps (45 lbs)
3 sets of 10 working on my back (75 lbs)
3 sets of 10 for shoulders (45 lbs)
3 sets of 10 on the front leg press (45 lbs)
3 sets of 10 on the free weight (110 lbs)

Vlog - My New Webcam & Harry Potter

Check it out.. got a new Webcam today and it came with this great program that makes it so easy to do these video blogs.. here's the first one about my new Harry Potter Ultimate Edition Blu-Ray DVD's. Let me know what you think... should I do more Vlogs?

Lunch with Brad & Renee.. well Brad

Today I went to BJ's out in Burbank to have lunch with some old friends.. I mean long time friend from back in my Dating Game and Newlywed Game days. Renee use to be a roommate as well and is the first person I ever came out too. We've haven't seen each other in over two years. Brad is a great guy and we haven't seen each other in almost 4 years so I was really looking forward to this lunch.

Got here a little before 1 and Brad was waiting there with a huge smile on his face. It was great seeing him and we sat there waiting for Renee and chatted about the past few years. About 1:20 still no Renee and neither Brad nor I had her number so we decided to at least get a table and drinks. So we waited until 1:35 and Renee was still not there to we went on to have a great lunch talking about everything from projects he is working on to my podcasting. It was great catching up with him.. he seems to be in a really happy place and that makes me happy.

We vowed not to let years pass before we see each other again.

And BTW I did get a message from Renee on Facebook.. she thought it was Tuesday today.

A Healthier Me - Day 65

Today was just an cardio day... only did a half hour.  :(

Today's Workout:

30 minutes of cardio

Lunch with Will

If you've read my blog you know I have been really missing my friends and so I've started making plans to have lunch with them before I start my new job at the end of Nov. I hung out with Brian on Friday, Will today, my friends Renee and Brad on Wednesday and Christopher on Thursday. I'm really trying to make a conscious effort to see my friends more.. even if it's just for an hour during lunch.

So today I had lunch with one of my best friends Will. We haven't seen each other for a few weeks and before that it was over 3 months. Like Brian, Will would often join us for lunch or he and I would go out to lunch at least 3 to 4 times a week while I worked on Deadliest Catch. We also hung out alot at work and had some of the best talks. You really get use to seeing these people everyday and when they are suddenly no longer there it leaves a hole in your life.  I very rarely make connections with work people that will last longer then the work gig. Being in freelance you get use to making friends with your co-workers and then moving on to your next set of co-worker but sometimes there are one or two people that you truly become friends with and want to keep in touch and hang out even though you no longer work together... like Brian, Will is one of those people.

So we got hang out for almost two hours.. had some yummy lunch at Chevys and then went over to Ikea to look at dining tables with him. We had a really good time but it also is hard because you have to say goodbye and with our track record and us being so busy we won't see each other for a few months. But I'm going to do my best to make sure that doesn't happen.

A Healthier Me - Day 64

Start of another week!!!

Monday Weight in: 209

Today's Workout:

30 minutes of cardio on the elliptical
3 sets of 10 on the chest fly for my chest (75 lbs)
3 sets of 10 on the curl arm for my biceps (45 lbs)
3 sets of 10 working on my back (75 lbs)
3 sets of 10 for shoulders (45 lbs)
3 sets of 10 on the front leg press (45 lbs)
3 sets of 10 on the free weight (110 lbs)

So no lose this week.. but also no gain so not all bad. :)

Working on my new Computer

Today I spent the majority of my time uploading and downloading programs to my new computer. Spent almost three hours trying to get my webcam to work. Kept searching for drivers for both of my webcams but it looks like both cams are too old and they didn't bother to make drivers for Windows 7.  Just means I have to get a new web cam. Also had a few other programs that didn't work with Windows 7, but I did expect to have issues since I was working with stuff from the XP operating system and over six years old. But I have to say that I've been fairly lucky and things are going pretty smoothly. My big concern was Audacity and Avid since both of those programs I use for editing my podcasts and are important to me. Audacity hasn't released a version for Windows 7 but said to download their beta version and that they have had some success with that working on Windows 7. So I did that and so far it seems to be working. And with my Avid I couldn't find my original discs that I used on my old computer so I have to obtain a newer version Avid Media Composer 5.0.0 and hope it would work with Windows 7 and I have to say things went perfectly. I opened project from the old avid and they opened just fine. 

So I only have a few more things to upload, I have my photoshop CD but can't find the serial key to activate it. Can't find my Filemaker Pro CD and even though I have six more months on my Norton it's not allowing me to activate it on this new computer. So all in all it's been a really good day and I'm extremely happy with how this new computer is working out. Still haven't tried the Blu-ray player, DVD burner or TV tuner but I'll give them a go tomorrow and let you know what I think.

My New Computer

Today I went to Fry's and picked up my new computer. I've had my last computer for over six years and it was a great computer it was time to retire it and buy a new one. I did some research the past few days and decided on an HP Pavilion Elite HPE-440f PC. Details:

• Intel i5 760 processor
• 8GB PC3-10600 DDR3 SDRAM memory
• 1 TB of hard drive space
• Wireless LAN
• Blu-ray Player/SuperMulti DVD Burner
• Built in TV Tuner, HP Media Center Remote Control
• ATI Radeon HD 5770 graphics card with 1GB DDR5 dedicated graphics memory, HDMI, dual-link DVI, display port, and VGA capabilities, and support for Blu-ray and Microsoft DirectX 11
• High Definition Audio with up to 7.1 surround sound capabilities
• Front panel 15-in-1 memory card reader:
• 6 USB 2.0 ports (Back); 3 USB 2.0 ports (Front); 1 FireWire (IEEE 1394) port (Back)
• Headphone; Microphone; Audio left/right-in; S-video-in; Composite video-in (Front); Optical Audio Out; LAN; Microphone/Line-in/Line-out; Rear speaker-out; Side speaker out; Center (subwoofer)
• Windows 7

This system is so much better then my old one. I was looking to get a Intel i7 but it was a few hundred more for that one which I was willing to do except it didn't have the built in TV Tuner and I really wanted that.

So far it's great I'm trying to get use to Windows 7 as my last computer had Windows XP. Only downside I can find at the moment is there are discs with this system. The recovery/backup is actually partition on the hard drive. Which kind of makes no sense. What if the hard drive crashes there would be no way to recover the computer's main operating system. Gonna see if I bump this stuff over to an external hard drive just in case. Other than that I'm very happy with it.. of course I've only been on it for a few hours but so far good.

Going to be spending the next several days uploading and downloading some 32 + programs that I use. Along with figuring out all my passwords and bookmarks.

Missing Friends

This has been on my mind lately so I figured I'd blog about it. I think because I had such an AWESOME time with my padawan Troy last weekend it got me asking myself why I don't do that more often. Meaning just hang out with friends, no agenda just enjoy ones company.

I have some of the best friends in the world and I consider a few of them my closest friends (you know who you are). But as I get older I see them less and less. I know as our lives get busier and busier free time tends to be dwindling but I miss the good ol' days when we would just hangout, watch some TV, go to lunch, do a movies, play some video games or just sit in the living room for hours talking.

Yeah we still see each other at birthdays, or plan a lunch or dinner meet up once a month but it's different then just hanging out with no agenda and deciding on what you want to do together. It's like we have to slot each other into a schedule to make sure we spend time together and I don't know why or when this started to be the norm.

Maybe the good ol' days are gone, maybe we have to many responsibilities now, but does that mean we can't just hang out at least once a month and not really plan anything just spend time together and see where it goes? I hope so because I really miss my friends.