Burgers, Bats and Budgets

Today I got up a bit later due to the fact that I didn't get to sleep until 3am. I wasn't feeling so hot, the past few days I've woken up with a sore throat but today my stomach was hurting as well. I wound up cancelling my plans for Saturday evening with my buddy Sebastian and also my visit with family tomorrow. But today I was having lunch with my buddy Thomas (from Ireland) and watching Dark Knight Rises, I probably would have cancelled that but the tickets were already purchased and this Thomas' second to last day and I'm lucky enough to see him once or twice a year.

Before lunch and a movie with Thomas,  I had hoped to get some podcasting done, but yeah that didn't happen. I did manage to clean my entire house which made me so happy. I hate having a dirty house and I haven't been able to do any cleaning or anything since before comic con. I even had all my comic con stuff still all over the place. But I wasn't suppose to meet up with Thomas until 1pm which meant I had to leave my place by noon. That gave me a good two hours to clean and clean I did.

As it always happen my stomach started to hurt 15 minutes before I had to leave. So I had to push back our meet up time to 1:30pm. I got to Sherman Oaks Galleria around 1:30 and meet up with Thomas. We decided to have Fuddruckers this time. Last Wednesday we did P.F. Chang's before Spiderman. Thought my stomach issues were done but I was wrong. After eating lunch I started to feel stomach pains again and the bathroom at Fuddruckers was broken so we quickly went to the theater and I went directly to their facilities. I figured I'd be in there for a while so I told Thomas to go in and get our seats and I'll meet him inside,  hopefully before the movie started. I did manage to get to my seat just as the previews started. Was very excited as I got to see the new Man of Steel preview and it looks pretty awesome.

3 hours later the movie ended and we made our way back to the parking structure. We were saying goodbye when I suggested that we go hiking at Vasquez Rocks tomorrow morning before he makes his way south to the airport. Even though I wasn't feeling well I couldn't say goodbye.. just yet.

Here is my Dark Knight Rises review... As I've said in previous blog posts I'm not a huge fan of Batman or this reboot.. well I should amend that. After seeing The Dark Knight and rewatching Batman Begins I have to say I really enjoyed Dark Knight Rises. It was very entertaining, full of action, had a great story that connected it to first movie. I liked the SFX. I loved the batcycle especially when it turned and the wheels would roll. Catwoman was fantastic and I liked "Robin". I think it was a great ending for this trilogy. And I can now say without a doubt that I really enjoyed all three of these movies and look forward to having a marathon one day. I give this movie a B and the over all trilogy a B+

After the movie I came home and made some dinner (which again hurt my stomach). I finished cleaning up the house but the thing I really wanted to do was watch the series finale of one of my favorite TV shows Eureka.

Eureka is one of those series that is just plain good. I've been there since the very first episode and enjoyed the ride. I was sad to hear when Syfy cancelled it especially since it was looking like it was going to be renewed for a sixth season. Syfy was kind enough to actually give them one more episode to do a final goodbye episode. This is what I watched tonight and I loved every minute of it. They brought back all the "main" characters from seasons past. It was a nice way to end the series and to thank all their loyal viewers. I'm sad to see it go but so happy with got 5 seasons of this FANTASTIC series.

One other thing I did tonight..  I worked on Chris and my secret project. I created a budget for this project. It's tough not being able to tell you guys what this is but we want to make sure it's going to really happen before we announce anything.. so stay tuned.

I didn't get everything I wanted to do done but I still think I had a productive Saturday. And for the first time in two weeks I'm going to bed at a decent time.

Dinner with William

Tonight after work I got to hang out with my buddy Will.  It's been a while since he and I just hung out. I got to his place quicker then expected. Will was still at work so I asked if he wanted me to go get the pizza and meet him back at his place by the time he gets home. Well it would have been quicker if I just left my car in front of his place and walked to the pizza place. But no I didn't do that..  instead I drove over to the pizza place and drove around for about 20 minutes trying to find a parking space. What made it worse were the other drivers. This entire experience really soured my night... I was not a happy camper.

I did mange to find a parking space and get the pizza. By this time Will was home and waiting for me. Got to his place and luckily there was a free parking space under his apartment, so I didn't have to go through that same ordeal all over again. Got up stairs and was greeted by Will's smiling face, his greeting made the last half hour just disappeared. It always good to see him.

We were getting together to not only see each other but to celebrate Will's birthday, which was on Monday, since I couldn't make it to his party/dinner. Went inside with the pizza and was introduced to his new roommate (who's name I can't recall). I knew Will's old roommate was leaving but didn't realize he had gotten a new one and come to find out that it's been a few months. So his roommate joined us for dinner, luckily I had gotten a large pizza and some wings.

Will suggested that we watch Batman Begins and The Dark Knight since he just got both of them on blu-ray. I haven't seen Batman Begins since it was in theaters because I wasn't a big fan of it. And because I wasn't a big fan I didn't see The Dark Knight until a few months back. Anyways we popped in Batman and it was so much better then I remembered. I really enjoyed it and it got me pumped for The Dark Knight Rises.

It was late and I didn't want to do the other movie. I had planned to leave but then Will and I started talking and the next thing I knew it was 2am.  Luckily it was a Friday so I didn't have to work the next morning. So getting to bed around 3am wasn't so bad and I had a great time catching up with Will.

Trying to Recoup

The past two weeks I haven't gotten more then four to five hours of sleep. I might have been able to handle this when I was younger but man it's tough as you get older. I mean I love comic con and then seeing friends after work but I don't think I can take it much longer. I'm actually starting to get sick. They say you need less and less sleep as you get older but I think that's a myth. I feel the older I get the more sleep I need to feel really rested. Oh well guess you only live once.. gotta have fun while you can.

Spending Time with the Irishman

After work today I headed to Sherman Oaks Galleria to have dinner and watch a movie with my buddy from Ireland Thomas. He was visiting for San Diego Comic Con and was doing another week in Los Angeles. I wanted to spend as much time with him since we don't get to see each other very often.

Got to the galleria and he was waiting for me near the Starbucks. We opted to have dinner at P.F. Chang's since he's never eaten there before. We were both hungry and I have to say this is the first time that I have ever finished all my food from this place. It was some yummy stuff. During dinner I got the load down of the happenings in Ireland.

We were going to see The Amazing Spiderman and the great thing about going to the Arclight of Sherman Oaks is the seating is assigned. So we didn't have to wait in line. This is a quick story about getting these tickets yesterday. I purchased them online but failed to change the date so I got them for that night. I quickly called the theater and after the phone rang about 50 times someone answered and quickly changed my tickets from yesterday to today.

Anyways I enjoyed the previous incarnation of Spiderman on the big screen and I felt it was way too soon for a reboot but was looking forward to this movie. Got our soda and sat center, center and the movie started. First of all it had Sally Fields (she's one of my all time favorite actors) so yay!!! Now for my review of this version of Spiderman. Overall I enjoyed the movie. I have to say that I don't think it added anything new to the Spiderman lore. The SFX were pretty good and I enjoyed the acting. The origin story was good but again it didn't feel original. If the Sam Rami Spiderman movies didn't exist this would be a pretty epic movie. Andrew Garfield who played Spiderman did a pretty good job acting more like a spider (being twitchy) and man is he a good crier. But over all it was just good movie, not great. I'd give it a B.

After dinner and a movie we said our goodbyes and would be seeing each other again on Saturday when we do this all over again for The Dark Knight Rises.

My Gimpy Life Podcast Launches

Download from itunes  http://ow.ly/coXnG or Listen, Direct Download http://mygimpylifepodcast.com

Today I released episode 0 of my new podcast/companioncast for Teal Sherer's new webseries My Gimpy Life. This is just an introduction podcast to the the podcast and webseries. First episode of the webseries will be out July 31st and the first companioncast will be out August 1st or 2nd. So watch the episode and then listen to some cool and hopefully informative behind the scenes goodies. 

Just released the podcast today and it's already hit #132 on the top 200 TV/Film audio podcasts... how cool is that.

The Day After - Goodbye Chris

Mondays are tough enough but the Monday after San Diego Comic Con are much harder. Lucky for me my best friend Chris was still with me. Jes, Rachel, Chris and I all got up bright and early. I was heading to work and Chris was joining me for the day. Rachel and Jes were getting ready to head back up north. I made some breakfast and we all sat around enjoying ones company. 8am came around and Chris and I headed out. The ladies would be leaving a bit later.

On the commute into work Chris and I worked on our new "secret project". This is something that started as a joke months ago and then this past weekend kind of evolved into something real. Both Chris and I are really excited for this. We talked none stop as Chris took notes. I'm sure I'll be talking more about this as it comes into clearer vision. 

Got to work around 9:30am and was greeted with new editors and story producers. Chris pulled a seat over to my cubicle and sat next to me. He worked on his ipad as I did my work. Lunch time we headed over to Daily Grill to meet up with Robert. Lunch was a lot of fun, it was great having two of my best friends with me. After lunch Robert took Chris over to his work place to show him around. About an hour later Chris returned. He planned to go to the movies with some Guildies so I loaned him my jeep and he headed over to the theater. He was going to return to my work around 7:30pm which worked out great as my job normally ends around 7pm. But at about 6:15 the power went out in the offices and remained out. Slowly everyone left the building except me as I didn't have my car. I sat around in the dark watching my cell phone battery slowly die.

As planned Chris returned at 7:30. I jumped in the drivers side and we were now off to Downtown Disney where Chris was meeting up with Jen. Once again during our commute (which wasn't as bad as I was expecting) we talked about our "special project"and went over more details.. both of us know that this is the right thing for us to do as everything flowed so easily.

Got to Downtown Disney and found a parking space. Waited about 10 minutes and Jen showed up. Chris was having dinner with Jen and then she was going to drive him to his hotel near the John Wayne Airport where he would be leaving back to Montana tomorrow morning at 7am. This was the moment I was not looking forward to all week. Last time I said goodbye to Chris I sobbed into his shoulder and my heart literally ached. But this time there were no tears, though my heart was aching. I gave him the best hug I could muster. I had to convey all the love and gratitude I had for him. SDCC would have been completely different if he wasn't by my side. I did cry a bit on the way home as it actually started to hit me that I wouldn't be seeing him tomorrow or the next day and probably not for a few months. I did stop by Taco Bell to get some comfort food for the drive home. Got home around 11pm and I was once again alone.

San Diego Comic Con Day 5

It's our final day at San Diego Comic Con. Part of me is happy because, though con is a blast it's extremely exhausting. but the other part of me knows that when it's over my bestie Chris is going back to Montana.

But we still have one more day to go. My brother left in the morning (had to get back to his family). This time Chris and I dressed up in our Star Trek uniforms. We had planned to get a large group of people together to cosplay in uniform but in the end it was only Chris and I. We walked around the floor starting on one side. Though we've been there for five days I still hadn't seen the entire floor. So we made our way from booth to booth. Our Star Trek uniforms were not nearly as popular as my Hobbit and Chris' Altair outfit. But I guess that was good since we really did want to see the floor and not be stopped every few feet. We meet up with some friends here and there but the majority of the day it was just Chris and I.

We stopped my Marian Call's booth to say hi and get pictures. I also picked up all three of her CD's. The only thing we planned for today was to go to the Star Wars cosplay panel. When we planned this we had six or seven people planning on dressing up in Star Trek uniforms and Chris thought it would be funny if we crashed their event. In the end it was only Chris, Aaron, Will and myself in uniforms and nothing really happened when we walked in. I know Chris was disappointed at the reaction and I was disappointed in the panel.. it was just boring.

After the panel we meet up with Rachel and Jes and finished walking the floor before heading back to our townhouse for rest before heading out to dinner.

The Strip Club has become some what of a tradition as the place for our goodbye dinner. This is a place where you cook your own meat. Chris wanted to go here again though he complained last year about having to cook his own meat. We had a large party and it kept getting bigger. We ended up with something like 18 people but it was a great way to end con. Everyone had some yummy steaks that Chris and Olivia grilled and to end the dinner we all sang Happy Birthday to Milynn.

We slowly said our goodbyes to everyone before heading back to the townhouse to grab our stuff and walk it back to the car. Olivia and Thomas joined us to say goodbye. After his goodbyes to Olivia and Thomas we all piled in Jes' car with even more stuff then we came with. Once again Chris and I got really cozy in the backseat.

The drive home was uneventful. Jes' GPS took us what seemed to be a longer route but in the end it avoided all the traffic and we got home in a little over three hours. We unloaded the car and crashed at my place.

San Diego Comic Con 2012 has come to an end.

Overall it was a fantastic con. One of my favorites in recent years and there are two reasons for that. One I just relaxed and didn't try to get into any panels, I just cosplayed the entire time and two I got to spend the majority of my time with my best friend Chris. I couldn't imagine doing this with anyone else. I can't wait for SDCC 2013.. let the planning begin.

You can see all my Con pictures HERE 

San Diego Comic Con Day 4

Got up early once again, I was cosplaying as a Hobbit again (people seemed to really like it) but Chris decided to dress up as Barney Stinson from How I Meet Your Mother.

We did our normal routine and ate breakfast at Subway before making our way to the convention center. Once again this was a nice walk around the con in character and have pictures taken of us. We meet up with our friends Rachel and Jes, they had panels at Nerd HQ at noon but were going to hang out with us for a bit.

One of the highlights of the trip was when I was at the Weta booth and a Weta employee lady grabbed me and walked me over to where Richard Taylor (the man behind Weta) was sitting to show me off. He waved and gave me the thumbs up when he saw my outfit. Then another employee of Weta took my picture and said he would put it up on their website (You can see HERE  and scroll down to July 15th) and then he proceeded to take me to the Cave Trolls to get a picture of me there as well. Everyone there loved my outfit and it made me proud of what I put together. The guy who took my picture gave me a magnet in the shape of Hobbit feet... it's pretty cool.

After that we wandered around for a bit and I found my friend Jamie Chambers booth. He invented a new card game and I went to purchase it and reached for my wallet in my backpack when I noticed that my backpack was gone. Immediately I start to panic... not only is my wallet in there with a few hundred dollars, Chris' new Ipad is in there. The last place I remember it being was near the bathroom when I put it down to take some pictures with people. I guess I just walked away and left it there. Chris quickly ran back over there to see if it was still there but I was doubtful as it had been thirty minutes. He came back empty handed so we pulled out my iphone and checked the location of his iPad. I have a Find Friends app that allows me to see where my friends (with iphones/ipads) are, at all times. We saw that the ipad was still at the convention center, but the radius was to wide and we couldn't pin point the location. I decided to head to the Lost and Found booth. A few years back I lost my cellphone and it was turned in there so I was hoping I'd get lucky once again. We got to the lost and found and as I walked up they were emptying the content of my backpack onto a table and inventorying it. One of the guards just dropped it off. Everything was still in there.. whew.. that was a close call. I don't mind losing my stuff but I would have hated to have lost Chris' stuff. From now on that back pack is sticking to me like glue.

The ladies left and Chris and I continued to walk around the show floor. We went to the Jason Palmer booth (he's one of my favorite geeky artist). I was hoping he had something new but atlas there was nothing I wanted to buy. But my buddy Chris bought three paintings, Indiana Jones, Boba Fett and Serenity/Mal.. all three are AWESOME prints and will look great in his place. We also stopped by my friend Teal's booth were she and Sean Becker were promoting My Gimpy Life. It was great seeing those guys.

We meet up with my brother Michael, Aaron and Rupert and headed out to grab a bite to eat. When we first got into town I noticed that we drove by The Counter, a really cool burger place. so we headed that way. It was hot and my feet were killing me. The Counter wasn't that far from the con but when we got there it hadn't opened yet. We opted for TGIF instead. We were meeting Adam, Katie and her friend there. The seven of us had a nice lunch before going our separate ways. Chris ran off to see if he could get one of those knitted figures, while my brother and I went back to the townhouse to rest. Chris came back empty handed so he and I headed back to con.

This is when my second most memorable moment happen. I got to meet Sean Astin from Goonies / Rudy / Lord of the Rings. He was signing at the Hollywood Treasures booth. It cost $40 to get an autograph but I didn't care. I've been a huge fan of Sean for years and it was awesome to get to meet him. And a plus, he really liked my Hobbit costume. I was so excited to meet him that when I went to put his picture in my backpack.. yep.. I left it by his table. Luckily we were only a few feet away and Chris ran over and got it.

We headed back to the townhouse to drop off stuff and rest a bit. We debated on going back to con as we were going to a Marian Call concert at 7pm and we had to drive or bus there. I wasn't sure I wanted to go or just stay at the con til 7 cosplaying. We headed back to con for about a half hour when I realized it was a waste of time and I did want to go to Marian Call concert and headed back to the townhouse.

Chris helped my brother once again Tron up and Chris and I got ready to head out. We were meeting up with Luis who was going to drive us over. My buddy Will wanted to join us so he came along as well. Once at the church where she was playing Dallas and Aaron joined us. This was my first Marian Call concert thought I've enjoyed her music for years. She didn't disappoint. We all had a great time at her concert.

We drove back and everyone was going to hit the Slamcon party but my feet were killing me and I'm not much of a party person, unless it's my own party. So I said goodnight to the fellas and headed back to the townhouse were I found my brother in the window all lite up and people taking picture of him from the streets. I ate some left over hot dogs for dinner, chatted with my brother for a bit before calling it a night around 1:30am.

Tomorrow is our final day at comic con.

You can see all my Con pictures HERE 

San Diego Comic Con Day 3

Well Chris and I got up early and kind of hung around the townhouse in the morning. We opted to go get our breakfast at Subway before getting dressed up in our cosplay. We hung out with our friend Thomas who was sharing the room with us, waiting for my brother to arrive. Michael arrived around 10ish and Chris and I finally finished putting on the rest of our cosplay. I was going as a Hobbit and Chris was Altair once again.

We got to con around noon and walked around the floor for a bit taking pictures. My brother headed off to try and get into a panel while Chris and I continued to walk around and run into friends here and there.

It was a pretty laid back day. There was the Firefly panel which both Chris and I would have loved to do but folks were in line since 6pm the previous day. Yeah that's not my thing. I did panels for years but I no longer have the patience or need to wait that long. We had some lunch from the con floor, consisting of a pretzel hot dog. We searched for little knitted figures and again came close several times but never got one.

We left the con around 6pm and headed back to the townhouse to change. And to help my brother get into his Tron outfit. He planned to head back to con for the last hour and then hang out as his outfit is best when dark. After we suited him up we headed to the local Ralphs to pick up supplies for "The Geek Mob" party that I was throwing at the Guildie Townhouse.

I kept my hobbit pants and ears on but changed out my shirt for my cool LOTR/Beatles shirt and some shoes. Got to Ralphs and went shopping, bought some hamburgers and hot dogs to BBQ, chips and other snacky things to eat. Once we got back some folks had arrived and a few of them went to the local CVS to get some soda and beer. Around 7:30 more folks arrived and the party officially began at 8pm.

I had very limited space and it was tough picking and choosing who to invite. Since I did not rent the house I went by what Lydia told me. I could have up to 25 guests including the 7 guests staying in the house. So that left me with some hard choices. Choices that I didn't like making and it kind of put a dampener on the party for me. I had several people ask if they could bring others and I had to say no, even though some of them were actual friends. It wasn't a good feeling but I had no choice.

I spent most of the party moody and pouty, but luckily not many people knew. Everyone seemed to be having a great time. Chris got the BBQ going and we started to play several games of Card Against Humanity. We had so many people that we actually got two different games going. After Cards they hooked up the Xbox and starting playing Rockband. My brother finally got back to the house around 10pm, as he left the 7 and it took him 3 hours to go three blocks because he was asked to take so many pictures.

I continued to be mopey and cleaned up the kitchen while everyone else was having fun. I hate when I get in those kind of moods but again it didn't deter anyone from having fun. Finally around 2am I had to call it a night and asked those remaining to head out.

It wasn't the best party for me but everyone seemed to have a great time and that's important to me. Next up day four of comic con and the last full day at con.

You can see all my Con pictures HERE 

San Diego Comic Con Day 2

Friday has begun, didn't get a good night sleep as our townhouse sits on 5th street which is the busiest street in the Gaslamp so the noise level was off the charts. But I was also excited for the con so that could also be contributed to my lack of sleep. Anyways Chris and I were up bright and early, 7am. I took a shower bath. It's a huge bath tube that sits about 3 feet high and you have to climb into it. It has one of those hand held shower type things so you can't really stand. Anyways took my shower bath and prepare to Hobbitfy myself. Chris was taking his shower bath so I headed down stairs to see who else was up. Lou was up and making himself some breakfast. I started experimenting with my two different make ups for my ears. The one I had last year was way to light, I have a lot of red in my face. So this year I purchased a bit redder and darker hoping I would get a better match. I also prepainted my ears so it would be easier and faster to put them on.

By this time Chris came down and assisted me on applying on my ears. He did a FANTASTIC job, he also did a little paint job on them to get them just right. They weren't quite the same color as my face but with the wig you would never know.. And they were a 1000 times better then last year so I was extremely happy.

After my ears Chris and I went up stairs to finish putting on our outfits. Chris was going in his very popular Altair outfit from Assassin's Creed. We both finished about 8:30 and were ready for con. We were starving so we headed down the street and found a subway. It was so hot in that place and with all the clothing we were wearing we were both dying.

We ate quickly and headed to the con. Got in around 9:30 and the floor was open. Today I really just planned to walk around in my cosplay and have pictures taken of me. There was a photo shoot for all of us dressed in Hobbit cosplay for TheOneRing.net. So Chris headed off to a panel while I meet up with Jes and Rachel. Jes was dressed as a Elf. At 11:30 we headed to the meeting place and had some group shoots taken of about 20 folks in Hobbit cosplay.. it was pretty great.

We met back up with Chris and ran into Dallas and Aaron who joined our group. We left con to grab some lunch. This is always an ordeal, we had a party of six and the first place we hit up with Syfy's Defiance Restaurant (formally known as Cafe Diem). But we had an hour wait and we were starving.. so we decided to find another place. Next was the Old Spaghetti factory. Now in all the years I have been coming to con I have never eaten here because the wait is always a few hours, so imagine my shock when I tell them that we have six and the hostess says, stand here and will seat you. Mind you that there are about 30 people standing and sitting around waiting for a table. Come to find out that one of there larger tables just opened and we were the largest party there. So we sat and had a nice pasta lunch.

After lunch the group split up and Chris and I headed back to he townhouse to relax for a few minutes. We headed back to the con and the showroom floor. I wanted to get some pictures of me with the Cave Trolls. After that Chris headed off to a panel and I roamed the floors alone. I took pictures of cosplayer and had pictures taken a me. About an our later I meet back up with Chris and we walked the floor a bit more before heading back to the townhouse to suit up for tonight's Wootstock.

Before Wootstock we headed out to get some dinner. We were cutting it close because Wootstock started at 7 and we sat down for dinner around 6:30 at The Hard Rock Cafe, which was right down the street from the theater (Wootstock).

I forgot to mention something that Chris and I were doing all day. Twitter persona @GeekyHooker made these cut knitted little figures and she was dropping them off in various places and then tweeting the location. Chris and I have been trying to get one all day but missing it by minutes each time. While we were eating dinner the one Chris really wanted (Batman) was dropped back at con. About six blocks from where we were. Well Chris in a full suit and dress shoes ran back to the townhouse to get his badge and then to the con only to miss getting it by mere seconds. By the time he got back to the restaurant he was exhausted and tired. We were already 15 minutes late for Wootstock and Jes and Olivia who had joined us for dinner left for the theater. I sat there and waited as he scarfed down his food trying to relax. We got to the theater around 7:25 and the show was already going. We found our seats and for the next four and a half hours we were entertained by a variety of people. From Paul and Storm, to Wil Wheaton, to Marian Call to Adam Savage taking about poop. For the most part it was a very entertaining show. This was my first Wootstock and it won't be my last.

After Wootstock it was 11:30pm and we headed over to the Geek and Sundry Disco Party. I had planned to just pop in and say hi to Felicia and the gang but once I got in and heard the music pumping all my weary and achy bones and feet left me and it was party time and we danced teh night away until around 1:45am.

Chris and I got home around 2am and crashed. We had to be up in six hours for the day three of con.

You can see all my Con pictures HERE 

Best Gift Ever!!!

Today when we were taking a break from the con my best bud Chris pulled out a bunch of dog tags and handed me a set. Earlier in the week he asked for some personal information and said he was creating something cool. Now I trust Chris with my life so I had no problem giving him some of my personal info, like SS #. Well he made us some official military dog tags. Depending on what info you gave him you got three to five dog tags. I got two with my personal info on it, one joke one (Frodo Baggins) and one with a personal message.

Now I love Chris, I have from the moment we met. There was this instant bond as if we've known each other all our lives. It so rarely happens and I've been fortunate enough to have it happen to me several times in the past few years. But when it comes down to it you never really know if the person feels the same way about you. But when Chris gave me that personal dog tag and I read the message he had wrote on it I knew that he felt the exact same way and my heart jumped for joy. He truly is my best friend and now that I have these dog tags he'll be close to my heart figuratively and literally. Thanks Chris for being AWESOME!!

San Diego Comic Con Day 1

Today is preview night at San Diego Comic Con. Jes and Rachel stayed the night so we could all car pool together. But first I had to finish up my MASH 4077 podcast. I had to upload and build the show notes and preset so it would be released on the 15th.

Around Noon we headed out to the John Wayne Airport to pick up my bestie Chris who was flying in for con. I have been so excited about seeing him as it's been several months. We got to the airport about a ten minute before he landed and waited by the baggage area. I was so excited that Jes and Rachel were making fun of me. I could barely sit still. When I caught site of him and jump up and immediately grabbed him brought him into a big bear hug. It's crazy how much you can miss someone, even though you talk to them daily via IM/phone.

We grabbed his bags and packed ourselves into Jes' car. Her car looks small on the outside but it's huge on the inside and we had that thing packed to the brim. Chris and I sat in the back seat and literally had to sit in each other's lap. It was cozy but I was with my best bud so I didn't mind. Several sticky hours later we made it to San Diego and to the townhouse. My friend Thomas was waiting for us with a parking pass to park across the street in the parking structure. We unloaded our bags and went our separate ways.. Jes and Rachel were heading to the Omni to their hotel room and Chris and I headed to the townhouse that we were sharing the six other people. We dumped stuff off in our room and then headed to the convention center to get our passes. It was around 6pm and the con floor just opened. We stood in what looked like a super long line for the professional tickets but it actually went very quickly and we had our tickets in about 15 minutes.

Every year the WB hands out these huge bags and this year there were Hobbit ones and I was so hoping that I would get one and I did. While we were getting tickets we ran into friends Brian, Brian and Leo. After we got out tickets we hit the floor. It was PACKED!! Since there were no panels everyone was on the floor. My goal was to get an exclusive Bilbo Hobbit figure from Bridge Direct. They were selling them at two different booths.. Gentle Giant and Entertainment Earth.  The first place Chris and I went to was Gentle Giant and there was a pretty long line so we decided to head over to Entertainment Earth. About halfway there we decided to split up, I would go back to Gentle Giant and get in line and he would see how long the line was at EE. When I got back to Gentle Giant booth the line wasn't that bad and about fifteen minutes later I had my exclusive Bilbo figure. Not only did I get mine I got two additional ones. There were no limits on how many you could buy and I knew that Jes wanted one (come to find out she got her own) but I'll be interested to see if they go up in value once the movie is out.

So my goal for Wednesday Preview night has been reached. Around 8ish we were tired from travels and it was so crowded on the con floor that we decided to go get some dinner (especially since we didn't eat lunch). So a small group of us went to this Irish pub (that we first thought was closed because no one was there), soon our group doubled in size and I had a great time hanging with my friends ( Chris, Jes, Anne, Dallas,  Luis, Aaron, Olivia, Rachelle and Rachel. As we were leaving Michele, Becca and Jeff showed up.

After dinner we said our goodbyes and Chris and I headed back to the townhouse to get some sleep. We were getting up early for the official first day of San Diego Comic Con 2012.... can't wait!!!

You can see all my Con pictures HERE

MASH, Work & Friends

Since I got home from work so late last night/early this morning I came into work a bit late but since I couldn't sleep and was up at 7am I decided to finish my next MASH 4077 Podcast, after a few hours I was done. So one less thing I have to worry about while at Comic Con.

Got into work around 11am and again it was a busy day. This was my last day before heading down to San Diego Comic Con. Everything was moving along nicely until around 5pm when catastrophe struck. The isis (hard drive that holds everything) slowly started to crash and soon went into meltdown mode.  I spent the next few hours hoping that it was an easy fix and that we didn't lose any information. I also had to get home because my friends Jes and Rachel were coming down from SF to crash at my place for SDCC the next day. So I left around 8pm and got on the road to go home, but noticed that I needed gas. I made my way to a local gas station when my post pa calls and says he's having trouble finding this person house where he is suppose to be dropping off a hard drive. While I'm talking to him my night AE calls me and is asking me questions about the isis, like password and such which I don't know. I try texting my lead AE but imessage decides to go down so no messages are being sent. I can't contact the person my post pa is trying to get to and I thought I was going to have a break down right there in the gas station parking lot.

Fifteen minutes later my post pa found the person's house and got the hard drive to him and my night AE called back and said that tech services are on the scene and the isis will be back up and running in no time with no lost media.

I got home around 9pm and my friends arrived around 11pm. We visited for a half hour (I actually got to meet Rachel for the first time.) We called it an night around midnight.. we have a big day of driving ahead of us... I also get to see my best friend Chris tomorrow afternoon and I'm so excited.. I'm sure I won't be able to sleep tonight.

Alien Nation: The Newcomers Podcast Ep. 7

Download from itunes http://bit.ly/itunesAlienNation or Listen/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 Season 1, Episode 7 - The Night Of The Screams

Directed by Gwen Arner
Written by Tom Chehak
Original air date October 30th, 1989

Plot Summary: Sikes and George are assigned to investigate a series of murders in which the victims were drugged into submission and their hands hacked off above the wrists, resulting in their bleeding to death. The duo find their suspect, an elderly newcomer whose target is the Overseers, and his purpose is to seek retribution for the atrocities performed on the slaves. George, while having been sworn to uphold the law, finds himself in the difficult position of agreeing with the man philosophically. Sikes decided to let George call the shots on this one.

Hope you enjoy it,
Kenny

Longest Work Day Ever!!!

Today has been one of the longest days I have worked in a long time. Started my day at 6am, got to work around 9am and the craziness begin. This was the final day of shooting on stage and since I was taking time off for comic con I had to stay until they were done shooting and since it was the last day, they ran long and finished around 11:30pm. I dropped off the tapes to the office at midnight and finally got home around 1:30am and to bed at 2am.

Cut & Curl... Hobbit Style

Got up today and laid out my entire Hobbit outfit. I wanted to make sure I had everything and that all was good go.

After that I spent most of the day editing several of my podcasts. Both my Alien Nation, which is due on July 10th and MASH 4077 which is due on July 15th. Both had to be done this weekend as I left for Comic Con on Wednesday I knew I wouldn't have any time to finish them. I struggled all day long forcing myself to get these two podcasts done. I manage to finish Alien Nation mid day and started working on MASH.

I got a text from my buddy Sebastian who was back from up north but I really wanted to talk to his girlfriend Amanda who is a hair stylist. I really needed someone to cut and curl my hobbit wig. Luckily she was free at night. Though I wasn't done with my MASH podcast I had to get this done so I headed over to their place.

Three hours later my Hobbit hair was cut and curled and looked great. The real human hair looks so much better then the synthetic hair. As a thank you I took Amanda and Sebastian out to dinner. We went to the Black Angus. After dinner I said my goodbye and headed back to my place getting home round 11pm. I had to be up early for work the next day but I really needed to get as much of my MASH podcast done as I could so I stayed up a few more hours working on it. Finally around 1am I called it a night but still had not finished my podcast.

Hobbit Wigs & Star Trek Pants

I got up today fairly early though I didn't get to bed until after 2am. I needed to find a new and better Hobbit wig as well as stock up on some new make up for my Hobbit ears. Like before I went to Namies down in North Hollywood (went to the same place last year).

First stop was the wig shop, last year I couldn't find anything there but this year I explained to the sales girl what I needed and to my surprise she was also going to comic con with her boyfriend who is a huge nerd. Anyways, we tried out a few things, unlike last year I was willing to pay more for real human hair. On our third try we manage to find a decent color looking wig, it was a bit longer but had some curls. We figured this one would be best to get and since it's real human hair we could treat it like real hair meaning it could be cleaned, cut and curled. The best part is that it was only $100 which is cheap for real human hair. And also since I'm a member of the PGA (Producer's Guild of America) and get a 10% discount..

After the wig shop I went over to the special effort store to buy some sponges, spirit gum and some new make up that matched my coloring more. After looking around for about 20 minutes I found everything I needed and checked out.

Now I have everything for my Hobbit outfit and I'm ready for con. Next stop was Target and Kohl's looking for black pants for my Star Trek outfit. But the trip was futile, I couldn't find any kind of black pants that weren't dress slacks. Since I already have black dress pants I didn't see any reason to get anymore.


Spent the rest of the day working on several of my podcasts.

Stuck in Santa Monica

After my bro-date with my buddy Robert I headed home.. it's something like 1am in the morning and I completely forget they are doing freeway work on the 405 in this area.. I spent the next hour driving around looking for an on ramp to the freeway.. sitting in long line of cars trying to get on the freeway. It was crazy. I worked all day then did dinner and a movie so I was up at 6am and it's now 1am of the following day and I was so tired... I just wanted to get home. As I mentioned I finally got on the freeway an hour later and home an hour after that... wasn't the best way to end the night and the only good thing is that I didn't have to get up at 7am the next morning for work as it's a Saturday. But this is my last weekend before comic con and I have so much stuff to do.

Bro-Date with Robert (Dinner & Brave)

Tonight after work I headed over to my bestie Robert. We planned to grab some dinner and then see Brave. I've been wanting to see this movie since it came out a few weeks ago but just haven't had the time.

Got to Century City Mall, which is where we were meeting. Found Robert up in the food court area and we grabbed some Panda Express. It was nice just sitting there having dinner and chatting with Robert. Though we chat via IM all day long everyday it's still nice to sit down face to face and talk.

After dinner we headed over to he AMC to watch Brave. Robert thought we wouldn't have an issue getting a good seat since the movie has been out for a few weeks.. but I knew better.. it was a Friday and Brave is a family film. I was right the place was packed but we did manage to get some decent seats in the middle but all the way over on the right side. I normally don't like sitting on the sides but with this theater it wasn't so bad.

Now for my review of "Brave"

First some details, Brave, set in the highlands of 10th century Scotland, a skilled archer named Merida defies an age-old custom, causing chaos in her kingdom. After consulting a witch for help, her family becomes cursed and Merida is forced to undo the spell herself before it is too late.

Let me say that this isn't my favorite Pixar movie but it's far from my least favorite. I love the setting and cinematography is incredible. The scenery is just BEAUTIFUL!!! I'm a huge fan of the whole Celtic/Scottish culture. This is a really good mother / daughter story. But not being a mother or a daughter I could still identify with the main character. I loved Merida's spunkiness and attitude. Her father and brothers were fantastic and were defiantly the comedy relief of the movie.  Over all I'd give this movie a B

Bilbo Exclusive

Today I got word that Bridge Direct will be producing The Hobbit figures... YAY!!!! I haven't been actively collecting figures for years but The Hobbit is going to get me back into it. And to top it off, there is going to be an exclusive figure, "Invisible Bilbo", that will only be available at San Diego Comic Con. It's going to be available at two booth Gentle Giant and Entertainment Earth. My new goal for SDCC is to be there Wednesday night for preview night and get me my exclusive Hobbit figure.

Settling In To The New Job

Three weeks in and I'm starting to settle in to the new gig. They are in the middle of shooting episodes for the new series I'm working on. I've been to set a few days and it looks pretty great. Things here in post are moving along nicely.. nothing too crazy.. yet. I'm liking my co-workers which is always a big plus. My boss is great and I have one of the best AE's that I've ever had. I know I can leave things in her hands and not worry that something will go wrong.. I had that at my last job and it helps so much.

Besides work stuff.. I'm getting things ready for SDCC this year. It just hit me today that I still have my hotel booking that I did last year. But since I'm staying at the Guildie townhouse I need to cancel it. Only took a few minutes but my reservation has been cancelled. Can't wait to Comic Con this year.

4th of July with Family

Didn't really have any plans for the fourth of July, I did get the day off from work, which was nice. But I did get a call from my mom a few days ago letting me know that she was going to have a BBQ and watch the boat show. Since I didn't have anything to do and I haven't seen my mom in months, figure it was a good time to visit.

The morning got off to a rocky start as my stomach wasn't doing so hot and I wanted to leave by 9am in order to get to my mom's by 11am.. well I didn't get out to the door until 10:30ish. Luckily there was no traffic for 2/3's of the trip and I did mange to get to my mom's around 12:15pm.

Also joining the BBQ besides my Mom and Chuck, were my brother Michael, sister-in-law Lora, nephew Kenobi, and niece Molly. My aunt Joyce, uncle Marty, cousin Matt and his friend Chris. Also my Grandma.

We had a nice BBQ, watched the cool boat parade in the harbor and there was this cool guy with one of those awesome rocket water jet packs so he was floating above the water.. it was pretty cool. Lora took some video and posted it to Facebook.. you can see it HERE. Also several of the family members when out boating on the water. We spent the last four hours playing Cards Against Humanity. Played with my brother, sister-in-law, aunt, uncle, cousin and his friend. This was all of their first time and they all seemed to love it. I wasn't sure how some of the cards would go over but everyone laughed so much and we all had a great time.

We all called it a night around 6ish and I got back on the road. I haven't gone food shopping in two weeks since I've been putting in alot of hour with this new job but I had no more food in the house so I stopped by the store to pick up some yummies before heading home. I got home around 8:30pm, was going to try and do some editing of some podcasts but instead I ate dinner and just watched TV for an hour before calling it a night and hitting the hay.

All in all it was a fun Fourth of July (though I didn't actually see any Fireworks)

San Diego Comic Con Panel Schedule

Every year I got though all the SDCC scheduling and create an excel sheet with all the panels/shows I would like to see during the con. The past few years I have created this chart but never attend anything that I have planned. Normally because there are super long lines and take hours to get through and you might make it into your panel. Doing panels these days require you to do nothing but stand in line all day. My time at comic con is valuable, yes I would love to see the stars and listen to the panels but seeing friends and dressing up is more important to me now.

But regardless I created another excel sheet that I will more then likely not follow. There are few panels that I'm going to do my best to get in, but again it the wait to over three hours I won't sacrifice my time for the panel.

Setting Up My Office

Well I don't actually have an office (first time being without one) but I do have a desk in a cubical so me being the geek that I am..  I had to geekify my desk so I brought a few things from home. Mostly action figures that I had opened. Angel of Death from Hellboy 2, some TNG figures, Harry Potter, Sauron from LOTR, a Yoda quote (plaque), Cylon, a Tribble (with sound), a few cool looking Borgs and of course Star Wars figures.

I also put up some pictures of friends and family to keep me company. When you come to my desk you know a geeky occupies it.. and it's just the way I like it.

Who-Coincidence

Like I mentioned yesterday in my blog.. I came across these tissue boxes with letters on them, while at Target in Riverside. Someone spelled out "Doctor Who" and I took a picture and posted on Twitter.

My buddy Adam replied with a comment "Are you at the Target in San Jose" because another friend of his posted a picture of the same tissue boxes with letters on them but this time they spelled out "Bad Wolf" which, if you're a Who fan know that plays a significant role in the early seasons of Who.

What are odds that two different people living a few hundred miles always from each other happen to spell out Doctor Who/Bad Wolf out of tissue boxes at Target. Just a cool coincidence or is the Doctor trying to tell us something....