Visiting Family

Today I got to spend some time with my family. I haven't seen them since before Comic Con so I was excited to hang out with them today.

When I got there I was greeted with so much love and affection. Both kids came up to me yelling Uncle Kenny and giving me a big hug. But my fun time with the kids had to wait as I was going to go out to lunch with my Dad first. I also like to have some one on one time with him and lunch seems to be our thing. Afterwards I always drive him around so he can run some errands.

Once back at my brother's my dad disappeared back into his room and it's now playtime with kiddos. Mike and Lora were off to Lora's high school reunion so Lora's sister Wendy came over to watch the kids. They were out back play catch when I went out to join them. We threw around the football for a bit, my nephew Kenobi has a better spiral then me and he's only six.

After catch we wrestled around on the trampoline, this is where I started to feel my age. I was exhausted and my back was starting to hurt but it didn't stop me from jumping and throwing the kids around. I know I'm going to be sore tomorrow when I wake up for gym but I didn't care.. the kids were loving it.

We went in and watched some "Into The Woods", Kenobi really likes that movie and asked that I bring my screener so he could watch it. While he watched the movie Molly brought me over to her My Little Pony and started to explain everything to me and how she loves brushing her hair... it was pretty adorable.

We wound up back outside on the trampoline and they asked for me to join them but my back wasn't feeling so hot and I was about to leave (I spent about five hours with them) so I declined. I told them I was getting ready to leave and they both bounced over to me to give me a hug goodbye. Molly asked if I could come back tomorrow and I said.. maybe next week. She seemed okay with that.

I said goodbye to dad and headed home. It was a great family visit.

Me - Before and After

I always have been and will always be short and stocky, I will never be skinny and I've come to accept that. Because I'm stocky I've been able to hide my weight pretty well. I mean when I told people I was over 200lbs they couldn't believe it. But at my heaviest 219 it was becoming harder and harder to hide. I truly didn't think I was that big. Besides other medical issues.. I was considered morbidly obese. Which I always found ridiculous but that's what they classified me as. Now going into my sixth month at NerdStrong Gym and nine month overall workout I am down 30 lbs, one shirt size smaller (XL to a L) and three pant sizes smaller (38 down to a 35).

I posted a picture of my face shot before and after face shot a few weeks back and was shocked at how different I looked. When I was larger I didn't realize how big I had gotten because it was a slow process over many years. But when you put a picture next to a picture it's just crazy to see the difference.

So today I was on the hunt of a body picture that really showed how heavy I was and I have to say that was a tough challenge. Most full body pictures are of me standing up and because my chest is larger then average (again I'm stocky) my shirt comes out over my stomach so you really can't see the belly. I searched through hundreds of photos until I found one from when I got a mani/pedi with my mom last year. In the picture I wasn't my full 219 lbs, but probably close 210 lbs or so but I was sitting and it definitely showed off my larger belly. Again when you put a picture next to a picture it's amazing to see the difference nine months of hard work and eating healthier can do. I'm still far from my goal of 165 lbs, currently 189 lbs but I'm well on my way. I'm was hoping to lose the last 24 lbs before by my one year anniversary of getting fit on Oct. 21st 2015. But that doesn't seem likely since I haven't gone down a single pound in the last two months but I know that I'm losing fat but gaining muscle in it's place. So instead my new goal is to be my ideal weight of 165 on my 1 year anniversary at NerdStrong Gym which is February 5th 2016. That seems like a more reachable goal, 24 lbs in 7 months which means I have to lose just over 3 lbs a month... wish me luck!!

Overall I'm very happy with my progress and I want to thank you all for your continued love and support.

NerdStrong Gym - 450 Reps, 500 Meter Run & 9 Minutes of Planking

After taking off Friday and resting a bit I was ready for whatever coach Andrew threw at us today.. so I thought!! Today's worked looked horrendous, but once it was broken down and modified it was still horrible but not as bad when I first saw it. This workout had a huge reward. Coach Andrew doesn't like hugs but he offered to hug anyone who finished this workout. I was determined to make it happen.

Of course we started with a really good warm up before moving straight into the workout. We had a time cap of 30 minutes and were to get as far as we could within that time. So if you look at the workout the black was the more advanced, the green numbers on the right were a step down and then the items in the parenthesis were even a further step down.  Coach Andrew strongly suggested that we go back and forth between the items, depending on our ability.

So I started my workout with a 250 meter run with a 20lbs sandbag around my shoulders. Next I grabbed a 35lbs Kettlebell and started to do the 100x Goblet Squats. I got to 50 and realized that I was killing myself so I went down to a lower pound kettlebell and did 10 more before calling it quits. I did the :90 second plank and then I tried to do a Kettlebell Sit Up and failed so I opted to do a regular sit up and did the full x90 of them. Did another :90 second plank before moving on to the 80x Explosive Push Ups (for this we had to have one hand on a kettlebell and then push ourselves off and over with one hand and land with the other hand on the kettlebell. I manged to do 30 this way before dropping the kettlebell all together and doing another 10 before calling it quits. Another :90 second plank and then 70x Kettlebell Reverse Lunges. Right now I'm pretty cooked so I did a first 10 with the kettlebell but dropped the weight and did the remaining 25 without wait for a total of 35.

These planks were getting harder and harder and I was taking more breaks then I would have liked but I tried to stay up for as long as I could for the next :90 second plank. At this time I resolved that I would do the lesser reps with the weights just so I could get through as much of the workout as possible. So next was the 60x Face Peelers, which meant I did 30 of them. At this time there was only 90 seconds left of the workout so I did a :60 second plank and then moved on to the Mace Thrusts and managed to do :30 seconds worth before time ran out.

And with that I failed at completing the workout so that meant no hug from Coach Andrew for me :( needless to say I was disappointed but I did a pretty good job and got to where I was hoping to get (though I had to modify more then I liked), so I was happy with the results. This was a tough workout but a good one. Thank Coach Andrew.

Creativity Crisis!!

I need a creative kick in the butt. I feel like the past few years I have had some good idea and have taken them just to the edge of production but for whatever reason I don't follow through and they fall along the waist side. I'm sure there are many reasons why this is happening.. no time or laziness, but I think a big one is lack of funds and even bigger lack of confidence in my ideas. What's worse is I've had some great ideas or concepts and didn't act upon them soon enough and then see them months/years later being done by someone else.

Creatively I feel very stagnant at the moment and I don't know how to break the cycle. Maybe I need a creative partner, someone to bounce ideas off of or work on projects together. I have found that I tend to complete things more often when I have a bit a pressure from an outside source. Maybe that's my next step... I don't know.

I do currently have my own production company, Geekyfanboy Productions, which produces podcasts. But out of those six podcasts that I have created only one is still currently active (MASH 4077 Podcast). Several are devoted to webseries that are no longer in production (Knights of the Guild for The Guild & My Gimpy Life podcast for My Gimpy Life), one just kind of fizzled out as I didn't like the way it was turning out and wanted to try and retool it but just haven't found the time (Confessions of a Fanboy), one has been on hiatus for a few month as finding time to record has been very difficult (Alien Nation: The Newcomers Podcast) and the final one has been in the works for five years but hasn't gotten past the developmental stage for various reasons (The Geek Roundtable).

I think it's time to take a step back and look at what's going on creatively in my life. Assess what I'm currently doing and figure out what my next step is... I'm tired of feeling as though I'm just sidestepping through life... time to move forward.

Geek Pride, Agent Carter, Booking NerdStrong & Hunger Games Trailer

Super excited as I got my "In This House We Do Geek" sign in the mail a few days ago and put into a temporary frame. I loved this sign the moment I saw it and knew that I had to have it. And I have to say seeing it in person it's even better then the picture. I love all the different sayings and how the artist uses the "specific" font used for each movie. It's a great addition to my apartment. I haven't hung it up yet as I'm not sure exactly where I want to put it. But for now it's sitting my dining table looking awesome. If you want to pick up your own sign head over to the Artists Etsy page HERE.

So this past week I have been watching episodes of Agent Carter during my lunch break. It just reminds me how much I love this series. I can only watch one episode per lunch and it's so hard to not continue with another episode. If you have not seen this series and are a fan of the Marvel universe you are truly missing out on something special. I'm really looking forward to season two in the new year.

There is a new trailer for Hunger Games MockingJay part 2. Now I was not a fan of the last third of that book but I have to say this looks pretty awesome and I'm really looking forward to seeing it.

Spent a half hour booking my NerdStrong Gym classes for the month of August. I booked 27 out of the 31 days, thought that may change. I'm currently going six days a week with Monday's off, but the past three weeks I have also taken off Friday (open gym) and I think it's working better for me. But for now I'm booked 27 days next month.

After work I headed to Robert and Cait's place to hang out for a bit. We haven't done a TV night in months so I thought it would be fun to get together. Robert and I still had a few of the Babylon 5 TV movies to watch but I wasn't really feeling B5 today so I suggested that we watch the first two episodes of Agent Carter, neither Robert nor Cait had seen it yet. So we ordered some stuff crust pizza and buffalo wings (which I haven't had in a few months) and enjoyed some kickass Carter.... it was a good way to end the day.

NerdStrong Gym - Bench Pressing

Strength day today at NerdStrong Gym. We started with a good arm warm up before moving on to our barbell workout.

Today it was Bench Press. I actually like bench press' because I can lift a fair amount. Once I learned the proper form the rest was easy. We had to do seven sets of 4 reps each. We started at 60% of our max, then 70%, 80%, 85% and then back down to 65%, 75% and finally 85% again. We also added 5 to 10 additional pounds to that number.

My max bench press is 180 lbs so I did my percentage from there. It was a good workout. It's tough to do 4 reps at 85% but nice to go back down again where it feels like you are doing nothing at 65%. The last 85% reps is the hardest because you just finished doing 24 bench press' at various rates and now you have your final four at one the heaviest weights. I am looking forward to upping my max for bench press. I'm hoping to get to 200lbs in the near future.

The last 20 minutes of class was dedicated to a mini workout which was 5 rounds of 10x Barbell Push Press and then 70 meter Farm Carry with a Kettlebell. After first this didn't feel much like workout but after your third round and during the Farm Carry you're arms start to feel like lead and all you want to do is drop the kettlebells. By the end you are happy it's over.

Blog Post 4000 - Stephen Fry, Please Like Me & Hayley Atwell

This is my 4000th blog post.. I can't believe I've blogged 4000 times since I officially started back in 2006. Honestly I blog for me, it's kind of like a diary of my life but I also do it for my family and friends so they can keep up with my daily geeky life. Thanks to all who take the time to read all my ramblings and especially those comment, I love getting comments. Here's to another 4000 blog posts :)

I came across this video today.. it's about five months old and it's Stephen Fry talking about "God". Now Stephen Fry is an Atheist which I do not consider myself. I have always called myself Agnostic but that doesn't mean I don't agree with his statement in this video. I think he's honest and to the point and I like that about his response. And as an extra bonus the interviewer looks dumbfounded by his answer.. which is pretty awesome.

And just so everyone is aware, I don't wish to offend anyone who is religious, if it's the right thing for you then that's great and I'm happy for you.

Please Like Me released a Season three teaser trailer but I have to say half of the footage is from season two. But it's still exciting to see some new stuff and to know we are getting another season of this quirky Australian comedy. New season starts Oct 16th but I don't know if that's in the US, Australia or the world.. regardless I'll be able to find it starting then... woot!!!

And the last thing I wanted to share with you guys is that Hayley Atwell is going to be at the Los Angeles Comic Book and Science Fiction Convention on Sunday August 23rd.

I use to go to this local con every month but I haven't been in years but with Ms. Atwell being there I think it's time to make my triumphant return. I'm super excited as I really wanted to meet her at SDCC but couldn't so now I get a second opportunity and I won't miss it this time.

If you guys don't know who she is, she plays Agent Carter in all the Marvel Movies (Captain America, Captain America Winter Solider, Avengers Age of Ultron and Ant-Man... and of course Agents of SHIELD and her own series Agent Carter. There is just something about this women (character) that I adore.

NerdStrong Gym - Running, Running & More Running Pt 2

Today was a repeat of last Wednesday CON day with a twist. We first started with a good warm up as we usual do.

For the actual workout it was broken down into two segments. The first was a 2 minute run and 1 minute rest for 4 rounds. Unlike last week when it was only a 1 minute run but we did it for 5 rounds, so it's less rounds but more "reps". This is always tough because you want to impress but not kill yourself especially since you know you are going to have to sprint for the next section of the workout. I did pretty good at pacing myself and landed in the same location everytime the two minutes was up.

For the sprinting that was different from last week as well. Last week we sprinted for a minute and then rested for 4 minutes and we did this 5 times. This time around we sprinted from the Hydrant to Sign (roughly 140 meters) and then rested 3 minutes and did this also 5 times. Here is were I shined. I used to run track and sprinting was my thing so I did the first sprint in 17 seconds, next I did it in 15 seconds and the three after that I manged to do 16 seconds each. It's nice to know that the sprinter is still in me and if I had proper shoes I probably could have shaved off a second here or there. But I was happy with my results and yes it took a toll on me to do that but I didn't kill myself and recovered quickly.

Don't know if we are going to be running next Wednesday, guess will have to wait and see.

Muppets First Look & The Good Dinosaur Trailer

Hey guys.. there are several trailers that I want to share with you today.. first one is the presentation that was shown at San Diego Comic Con during the Muppet's panel. This is what the Henson company showed to ABC to get them to agree to a new TV series. It's pretty awesome and I'm really looking forward to seeing this new series this fall.

The second is a trailer from the new Disney/Pixar movie called The Good Dinosaur. Even though they don't show a whole lot in this trailer it actually moved it, stirred up the emotions like most Pixar movie do. You know it's going to be another winner.

NerdStrong Gym - Push/Pull Ladder

Today's DEX workout was crazy difficult. It started with a pretty intense warm up. We started with 2 rounds of 7x Scap Pulls and 7x Scap Push Ups. Then a Door Stretch and J Hook Calf Stretch before doing 2 rounds of 10x Bridges and 10x Slow Froggers. I was already tired and we hadn't even started the actual workout yet.

The workout was broken down into two parts, the first part was push ups and pull ups. It was called a Push/Pull Ladder. We started with 10 push ups and 1 pull up, then 9 push ups and 2 pull ups.. as our push ups went down our pull ups went up until we did 1 push up and 10 pull ups. It was a tough workout especially for the arms. Most of use can't do pull ups so we did ring rows instead. Since I can do at least one pull up coach Andrew asked me to do one before moving on to ring rows each time. Towards the end Brenden and I were doing ring rows on a box.. so we were almost vertical while pulling ourselves up. As I said it was a tough workout.

Part two was 4 rounds of :45 second of work, :30 seconds of rest. We did Jump Rope, Kettlebell Swings and Burpees. So we started with :45 seconds of Jump Ropes, then rest for :30 seconds, then :45 second of Kettlebell Swings and then rest for :30 seconds and finally :45 seconds of Burpees before resting for :30 seconds and then doing it all over again three more times. :45 seconds doesn't sound like much but after the push ups and pull ups it's a struggle to continue to keep moving. And the :30 seconds of rest feels like it's only few seconds.

And to top it off it was my buddy Derek's birthday so that of course meant Birthday Battle Ropes. I never let anyone do them alone so I joined in and did them as well. As did a few others..  I know I'll be feeling this workout days to come.. my arms are going to be a mess.

Doctor Who Teaser & Mr. Tumnus Cosplay

BBC released a teaser trailer for their upcoming season Doctor Who. Lot's of bits and pieces, it looks a bit darker but that's how this doctor has been portrayed. Still not a fan of this doctor but I'm loving Clara with this doctor. Looks like the Master is going to be back again (not a surprise) as well as some old school villains. I'm excited to see more Doctor Who but not like I was back with Tennant.

I came across this awesome looking but I'm sure they will hurt wearing Faun leggings and hooves. My first thought was... Oh I can cosplay as Mr Tumnus, who I adore from the Narnia series.

I think I could pull off a really good cosplay of him but then remembered that he is shirtless and I don't know if I'm comfortable enough with my body to pull something like that off. Still who knows what the future holds I like the idea and I might try and do an alternate version with a vest or something. I mean he does wear a red scarf so I might be about to wrap that around my body. I'd also want to get full length leggins as these cut off at the knees. I know my friend Jes has made these kinds of legging in the past so I might see if I can get her to make me a pair.. but needless to say I won't be buying these leggings or hooves anytime soon as funds are extremely low.

You can check them out at this ETSY store HERE.

NerdStrong Baby Shower

In the after noon I went to Marla and Andrews baby shower. Marla and Andrew are the co-owners and founders of NerdStrong Gym and they are having their first baby.. it's a boy. I was happy to see that it was going to be at coach Kimi's house which is only a few blocks from my place so I was able to walk.

I had intended on bringing some buffalo chicken wings, orange chicken, chips and some onion dip. The chicken was the easy kind.. just pour out of a bag. All you had to do was heat them up and then pour the sauces on them... so I thought. About half hour before the party I figured I'd nuke the chicken to warm it up before heading over to Kimi's. But first I wanted to try one as I had never had this brand before and they can be hit and miss. Well I bit into the buffalo chicken and realized that it was raw still. I assumed these were already pre-cooked and all you had to do was heat them up and serve. Nope.. you had to cook them first then put on the sauce but instead I poured the sauce onto raw chicken and it had soaked into the breading and became all mushy. So yeah.. those were out.. I couldn't bring those so I just brought the chips and dip.

I got to the party and a few people were there. Soon the place was packed. This was a co-ed baby shower and didn't have any of your usual baby shower games. They did have was paint your own onesies station set up. Of course coach David set the bar really high by doing this amazing Cyclops onesies. I myself started to make a Minion but then decided to do a Hufflepuff rode which quickly turned into a black tuxedo with a dashing red bow tie (upper right corner of the picture above). I wasn't happy with my end results but luckily there were quite a few good ones that they can actually use. It was a cool and fun idea.

There were lots of tasty food like watermelon soup (courtesy of Marla) but I think the most creative came from coach Christy with her Baby Groot cupcakes. They not only looked amazing but they also tasted great.

Overall it was a nice party, not super crazy, kind of quiet and lots of geek talk.. just what you would expect from the creators of NerdStrong. Thanks for the invite guys.

NerdStrong Gym - Konami Code

To honor the death of the President of Nintendo, Satoru Iwata, we did a Konami Code workout, Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A today at NerdStrong Gym.

For a warm up we did a "partner ladder" consisting of Push Ups, Sit Ups and Squats. I partnered up with new daddy John. The way this worked was I did one push up and then John did one push up, then I'd do 2 push ups and he'd do two and so on. Luckily because of time we only had to go up the ladder 1, 2, 3, 4, 5  and then we moved on to the next exercise and did it all over again and again. It was a really good warm up. In the end we did 15x Push Ups, 15x Sit Ups and 15x Squats.

Now for the actual workout... this was also a partnered workout so John and I continued our teamup. We had a choice between easy, normal or hard workouts. We opted for the normal workout which had 1x (Up) Barbell Thruster, 1x (Up) Barbell Thruster, (Down) 5x Push Ups, (Down) 5x Push Ups, (Left, Right) 2x Barbell Hop, (Left, Right) 2x Barbell Hop, (B) 2x Burpee and (A) 8x Partner Leg Lever.

This was an AMRAP (As Many Rounds As Possible). Each partner had to go through the entire routine before the next person started. John and I went at it and encouraged each other every step of the way. We were hoping to get at least four rounds done each but we surprised ourselves and actually got six done..  so in total we did 12 Barbell Thrusters, 60 Push Ups, 24 Barbell Hops, 12 Burpees and 48 Partner Leg Levers each. Between this and the warm up it was a really good out. Thanks coach Andrew

Ant-Man: My Thoughts

Today I went to the Sherman Oaks Arclight and watched Marvel's Ant-Man in 3D in my favorite ATMOS equipped theater. If you're been living under a rock and don't have a clue what or who Ant-Man is here's a quick synopsis: Forced out of his own company by former protégé Darren Cross, Dr. Hank Pym recruits the talents of Scott Lang, a master thief just released from prison. Lang becomes Ant-Man, trained by Pym and armed with a suit that allows him to shrink in size, possess superhuman strength and control an army of ants. The miniature hero must use his new skills to prevent Cross, also known as Yellowjacket, from perfecting the same technology and using it as a weapon for evil.

Like with Ironman when it first came out I knew nothing about this character. But this being the umpteenth Marvel movie I knew it was going to be fun and I was right. I mean right from the start with a surprise cameo of Hayley "Agent Carter" Atwell herself I was loving it. Lot's of humor in this film, almost rivaling Guardians of the Galaxy. The CG and special effects were amazing and I haven't cared about an ant since "Honey I Shrunk The Kids". I enjoyed the acting as I'm a huge fan of Paul Rudd and Evangeline Lilly. I like that the story was simple.. it's wasn't some world killing event (we know they would just call in the Avengers for that). This movie has lots of mentions and nods to the Marvel Universe. We even got a more substantial cameo from Falcon during the movie, which was a fantastic scene. Overall it was just a great movie. Lots of fun and very entertaining. I give Ant-Man a solid A for sheer entertainment.

"Safe In My Hands" & DanceStrong

After the gym I came home, showered and changed and then headed to the movies with my temporary roommate Lydia. We were seeing Marvel's Ant-Man. This is my short reviews.. I loved it. I'll be blogging a longer review after this blog post.

I came across this Allstate commercial that I had not seen before. It's a short animated film that was part of the 2014 LGBT campaign, it's called Out Holding Hands. The film features a new single, "Safe In My Hands" a song written exclusively for Allstate's LGBT campaign by out singer/songwriter Eli Lieb.

I love everything about this. It's only a minute and a half long but it's tells a great story in that time. There is a quote at the end that I love "Being visible should never leave you feeling vulnerable". Being a gay man in public you always have to be award of your surroundings. A light peek on the cheek or the holding of hands can mean a beating or even worse a death sentence. I would love to have the freedom to hold or kiss my partner in public and not have to worry about who might be watching. Thank you Allstate for creating such an amazing video.

There is another great article about my gym.. you can check it out HERE. It's for a website called The Frame and it's titled "Nerdstrong Gym: Where pop culture geeks get in shape"

During the evening I got together with a bunch of fellow NerdStrongers and we went out dancing at a local gay club called Oil Can Harry's. It's usually a country and western club but on Saturdays they have Retro Disco Night. We got there around 8:30pm and had a few drinks during their happy hour. Soon we were on the dance floor shaking our booties and we didn't stop until around 11:30pm. When we got hungry so Andrew suggested a Ramon place in Van Nuys. Most of us headed over there afterwards and enjoyed a tasty late night dinner. I got home and to bed around 1:30am. We had a blast and plan to do it again soon. 

NerdStrong - The Mountain!!!!

Today's workout is called the Mountain and boy was it. It was a full 35 minute non-stop workout. But before I talk about the workout I want to talk about the weather. I haven't seen this kind of thunder and lighting SoCal for many years. As we waited for our class to begin we'd get a down pour of ran that would last ten minutes and then stop. At first I thought we'd be running in it but come 10am the rain had stopped completely. It was still extremely humid and parts of the parking lot were flooded, but that didn't stop coach Andrew.

For our warm up we went on a jog around the parking lot. But this wasn't a "normal" jog, coach Andrew asked for us to do circle with our arms as we jogged. He asked us to do side steps as we moved forward and my favorite, when we got to the large pools of water he had us hop through it. Needless to say my shoes were soaked through and through by the time our warm up was over. It was fun while it was happening but it wasn't that great afterwards when I had to workout in a soggy shoes.

Speaking of workouts this one is a dozy. It starts with a 750 meter run (3 laps around the now flooded parking lot), 50x Wallballs, 40x Kettlebell Swings, 30x Box Jumps, 20x Overhead Lunges, 10x Sandbag Clean to Shoulder, 500 meter run, 10x Sandbag Clean to Shoulder, 20x Ring Rows, 30x Clapping Push Ups, 40x Slamballs, 50x Sit Ups and finally another 750 meter run.

The group was split in half so half of us started on top and worked down while the other half started on the bottom and worked up. I was part of the top down team so everyone did the 750 meter run, but when we got back I went to the 50x Wallballs, As I mentioned before we had a 35 minute time cap so you just had to tackle one exercise at a time.... slow and steady was the way to get it all done. 

I'm happy to say that I got all the way to Sit-Ups and got about half of the 50 done before time ran out. Once time was call and tried to stand up and felt extremely light headed. Coach Andrew came over to me and asked how far I got and as I started to answer, I held up my hand to my mouth and made my way to the bathroom as I knew I was going to throw up.

I spent the next twenty minutes inside the bathroom lying on the floor. I've had two other incidents when I have felt this way after a workout but after talking to the coaches and eating a good bowl of oatmeal before my workouts I haven't had them since.. well until today..  I had a good bowl of oatmeal before this workout but I think the combination of being under the weather (chest congestion), the extremely high humidity and being mildly hypoglycemic contributed to this episode. I may have lost consciousness for a few seconds in the bathroom but like before my body rebounded and I started feeling better.

I don't feel like I pushed myself to hard this time, I was feeling great through out the entire workout. It as only at the end that I felt it. I ate properly and did everything as I was suppose to do.. sometimes the body just has a mind of its own. I hope it doesn't happen again as it's not the best feeling in the world but all I can do is continue to eat a good solid meal in the morning before the workout and make sure I don't overdue it during the actual workout.

Overall I really enjoyed the workout and besides the small episode at the end it was a really was great workout. Downside to being in the bathroom on the floor for 20 minutes is that you don't get to take a "class" picture.

X-Files Teaser & Geekie Nominees Announced

Fox release a teaser trailer for the upcoming six-part return of The X-Files. They really don't show much but the fact that they are doing this series is pretty amazing. January can't get here soon enough.

And the Geekie Awards announced their nominees. This is the third year for The Geekies and this is my third year being a judge. As with past years I was one of the judges for podcasts. I got to listen to some amazing podcasts yet again this year. Every year I do this  and I'm always impressed by the amount of talent out there. You can watch the announcement video and check out all the nominees on their main website HERE.

The Other "F" Word

So I came across this video where 30 gay men gave a one word response to the word "Faggot". Of course I'm talking about the North American interpretation of this word, the derogatory word used to label gay men. I have always disliked (even hated) this word. I obviously don't like it when I'm called it or any fellow gay man but I dislike it just as much when a fellow gay man will playfully say it to refer to another gay man.

I know there are some out there who say we should embrace the word and take it back for ourselves, to not give this word so much power but I think there is just to much negativity surrounding it. It's a word that is meant to hurt gay men and for me it will always be that way.

I remember an incident with a friend, when they used it in a conversation with me and my jaw dropped. They weren't being mean or vulgar, to them it was just a word.  They couldn't understand why I was offended by it. I tried to explain it but I don't think I really got through to them but I do hope that they won't say that "F" word in front of me again.

NerdStrong Gym - Bench Press & AMRAPS

Today is Strength day at NerdStrong gym. We started with a pretty good warm up that consisted of three rounds of 40x Jump Rope, 3x Tempo Push Ups, 10x PVC Pass Thrus and 10x Bridges.

For today's workout is was all about Bench Press'. I actually like doing bench press' as I feel with my larger upper body strength I really benefit from these. We had to do 6 sets of 5 today with set one starting at 60% of your max then moving up to 70% for the second set and then 80% for your third set. But then for your fourth set you'd go back down to 65%, then 75% and finally your final set at 85%. Between each set we had to do 8x to 10x Wall Supported Hammer Curls.

It was a good workout and towards the end it got pretty tough pushing up that bar at 85% of my max, which is currently 185lbs.

After the strength workout we got to do a 12 minute AMRAP (As Many Rounds As Possible). This workout consisted of 3x Ring Rows, 6x Push Ups, 9x Squats and 12x Sit Ups. All basic stuff but when you're already tired from the bench press workout doing all these things can be a bit tough. I managed to complete 4 1/2 sets before time ran out.

Overall it was another good day at the gym... but let's be honest.. when isn't it. :) Thanks coach Andrew.

Pluto, Marvel DubSmash Battle & Sherlock

So I've been fighting off 'con' crud (this is a term used by people who just returned from a comic book convention) the past few days but I think it's finally taken hold. I've had this nagging cough that I can't seem to control. I also have congestion and nasal blockage. I've heard from some friends who also have con crud and it sounds like I got off easy. Though it's a pain in the butt I feel relatively okay and can continue going on about my day.

The New Horizon Probe has been heading towards Pluto for 10 years now and it's finally reach it and has been sending back some amazing pictures. We've learned so much about Pluto in the last few days then we have... forever. The pictures are beautiful and the information we are getting is amazing. But being the geek that I am, every time I see the those pictures of Pluto I can't help but think of the ice planet of Hoth from Star Wars. Anyone else have that thought.. or is it just dorky me :)

Hayley Atwell who plays Agent Carter in the Marvel universe got into a DubSmash battle with Clark Gregg (Agent Coulson) and Chloe Bennet (Skye). If you don't know what DubSmash is, it's this app that allows you to video tape yourself while you lip sing a song or quote a famous quote... it can be pretty hilarious. Soon after the battle began, Hayley's co-star James D'Arcy (Jarvis) joined in the fun as well as more of the cast of Agent's of Shield. So it became a battle of Agent Carter verse Agent's of Shield. Over several days we (those who follow them on twitter or Instagram) were treated to these amazing "dubbed" songs, each one outdoing the next. Finally Hayley and James won but bringing in the big guns.. Captain America himself Chris Evens. Hayley and friends did one more as a kind of victory lap as the battle was won.. congrats to Agent Carter and her team for smashing Agent's of Shield. You can watch the majority of the battle videos HERE on this website.  But I found this you tube video with a nice compilation of the videos as well as some cool behind the scenes making of the videos. If you're a fan of either of these shows it's a must watch and if you're not a fan.. it's still a fun watch.. check it out.

And the final thing I want to share today this amazing teaser trailer for the upcoming Sherlock special. I miss Sherlock so much and this one is different because it's set in the past, though everyone is playing the same characters.. should be interesting.

NerdStrong Gym - Running, Running & More Running

Today's CON class was all about running, but before we get to that we had a nice warm up and did a bit of mobility work. We then moved on to this really cool cool agility exercise. Coach Andrew placed these cones on the ground and for the first part all we had to do was side straddle around each cone. The second part was a bit more complicated as we started in the middle and then we'd have to jump to one of the outside cones, bind down and touch it and then jump back to the center cone and touch it and then jump back to the next cone and touch and so on until we touched all the cones. This was timed so we tried to do it as fast as possible. Of course I went first and was the guinea pig so everyone after me went a bit faster... I hope we get to do this again in a future workout.

After the agility exercise we moved on to the actual workout which was running and running and oh some sprinting too. We started with 5 one minute runs around the parking lot. So it didn't matter where we were in our run, at the one minute mark we had to stop and rested for a minute before doing it again.

Once the running had exhausted us we moved on to sprinting. Like with running we did 5 one minute sprints. The different between running and sprinting is with sprinting you are moving as fast as your legs can take you. Sprinting is a lot more taxing on your body so we got to take 4 minute rests between sprints.

Luckily I enjoy running so I liked this workout but some folks weren't so happy :)

NerdStrong Gym - We're Back!!!

So this is my first day back to NerdStrong Gym and man am I feeling it. The warm up, which was like a mini workout was tough. I'm usually great at squats but man it took way to much effort to do them today.

After the warm up we did a Kettlebell Ladder, which meant we started light and increased our weight with ever set. We did 10x Kettlebell Swings per weight for 15 minutes. We started at 26lbs, then 25lbs, then 44lbs, then 55lbs and finally to 60lbs which I only did a few. I never made it to 70lbs but was still impressed that I could swing that 60 pounder.

We then moved on to the actual "workout" It was 4x :30 seconds of work then :30 seconds of rest with Mountain Climbers, Jump Rope and finally Burpees. So we did :30 seconds of Mountain Climbers, then :30 seconds of Jumping Rope and then :30 seconds of Burpees and then did is all over again for a total of four times. Thirty seconds doesn't sound like much but man when you're exhausted and in the middle of a set it feels like eternity.

It was a good workout and hard. I don't think the workout was particular harder then others but not working out for three days (I did workout 2 of the SDCC days) and eating poorly really does take a toll on your body. But I'm happy to be back at the gym.

So Many Awesome Trailers from SDCC

So many awesome sneak peeks/trailers were released during comic con.. first up is this amazing Star Wars The Force Awakens behind the scenes video.. Not a lot of stuff is shown but many any footage from this sequel looks amazing.. it's gonna be mayhem when this movie is released.

Next is a "first look" Suicide Squad trailer. I don't really know much about this series other then what I have seen on Arrow but it's tough for me to like the "bad" guys. But I have to admit this trailer looks good. I'm sure I'll see this when it comes out. Especially since it looks to be tied into the DCU.

Next is a new trailer for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. I know I'm one of the few people who really enjoyed Man of Steel and really looking forward to this movie. Soon as this trailer hit the haters had a field day but I'm trying to not let these haters lessen my excitement for this movie.

 

They showed a Deadpool trailer during comic con but didn't officially release it but here's a bootleg copy. Like with Suicide Squad I don't know much about this topic but a bunch of my friends do so I know a little bit about it. It definitely looks a little goofy but that's Deadpool and I know from friends have loved it.

And finally here's the official trailer for the upcoming Heroes Reborn TV series. This I'm really looking forward to as I did enjoy the first series though I only watched 2 1/2 seasons of the 4 seasons. 

Day 4 - San Diego Comic Con

I woke up this morning and felt like cosplaying.. I have never cosplayed on a Sunday because you usually check out of your hotel room and that means you can't change before heading home. But that didn't stop me.. so I once again shaved and hobbited myself up.

We packed up all our stuff and checked out of the hotel. Luckily I was able to leave my luggage with the hotel. Once we were all checked out Michael and I headed over to con. This was our last chance to buy anything. Michael always buys something for his kids and wife so we shopped for them.

Because it's Sunday that means less cosplayers so those of us who were dressed up got alot more attention. I was being stopped quite a bit for pictures. Michael left and I met up with Chris, Hayley, Steve and some other friends. We continued to roam the floor, take pictures of cosplayers and having picture taken of us. I ran into several of my NerdStrong family and took pictures with them, it was a nice ending to con.

We stayed until about 4:30 before heading over to the Strip Club where we have our traditional goodbye comic con dinner. While we waited out front I got some photo requests, which is always fun. The group this year was a bit smaller then past years but still it was a good turn out. I had to speed up things since I was catching a ride back to LA with Meg and Kevin. So I ate before everyone had arrived and left about the time everyone else was about to order.

I told Kevin and Meg that I'd meet them at Megs hotel at 6:30pm and though the restaurant was pretty close I had to walk back to my hotel to pick up my luggage. So I started to head back at 6 in full Hobbit gear, stopping only a few times for people to take pictures. Once I had my luggage I quickly took off my Hobbit feet and wig and placed them in my luggage while removing a pair of shoes. I looked funky but I didn't care as I needed to get over to the Omni in the next ten minutes. I did mange to get there right at 6:30pm and both Kevin and Meg were ready to go. We packed up her car and made our way home only to stop once for some snacks.

Once we were home I had to drive Kevin back to his place so I didn't get home until around 10pm.

Final Thoughts on San Diego Comic Con 2015

I got to cosplay, hang with my brother and good friends, do a few amazing panels and walk the sales floor many times. I worked out a few days, did some really fun parties and got to meet a few of my favorite celebrities. I stayed at a great hotel that was close to the convention center and didn't have to drive the entire five days. Overall this was one of my more enjoyable comic cons. And usual at the end of con I tell myself that this is going to be it, I'll take a break and not come next year but not this time around.. I'm actually excited for next years comic con.. bring it on.

You can check out all my 2015 San Diego Comic Con pictures HERE.  

Day 3 - San Diego Comic Con

So I slept in a bit since I wasn't going to cosplay today and didn't go to bed until 2am. I got up around 9:30am and was out the door by 10. I headed over to Chris and Hayley's room as they were still getting ready (GOT cosplay). We headed over to con around 10:30ish and did our usual walk around the sales floor. We got stopped for pictures (well I didn't but Chris and Hayley did). My goal was to take as many cosplay pictures as I could. I felt as though I was slacking in that department and that's one of my favorite things to do at con. We walked around for a few hours being joined by several other friends (all in GOT cosplay).

Around lunch time we opted to eat at the con instead of trying to leave and have to wait a few hours like we did yesterday. I left the group several times to roam around the sales floor solo but did end up back with the group when it was time to head out back for the Game of Thrones photos shoot. This is always a huge production as there are a good 60 or so people dressed up. It can take a while to grab shots of the entire group and then they break it down in the houses and smaller groups. Last year I bailed about halfway through the shoot but this year I stayed the entire time. Several of my friends were asked to participate in a 360 shoot so I headed back to the sales floor and roamed.

The one panel I really wanted to do at this con was the WB/DC TV panel that included Arrow, Flash, Supergirl, Gotham and Legends of Tomorrow. It was happening in Hall H from 8pm to 11pm. I headed outside the convention center and over to the Hall H line around 5:30pm. My buddy Steve was already in line so I was able to jump in with him (thank you my friend). We were about six or so hundred people back but we were pretty sure we were going to get in. So we waited and waited.. chatted with the folks around us. And then 7:30 came and we waited for the line to move but it didn't. The previous panel was suppose to be done by 7:30 but it ran long and around 7:50 hordes of people started to exit the hall and we could all breath a sigh of relief as the line started to move. Soon we were inside Hall H and grabbed some seats about 2/3's the way back from the main stage but we were close to one of the big screens. I ran out to use the bathroom and grab some pretzels as I was starving and knew I wouldn't be eating for at least three hours.

The panel started around 8:30ish. We expected some executives from Arrow, The Flash, and Gotham to come out and talk about their series. Then the cast of Legends of Tomorrow and finally we were going to watch the pilot of Supergirl. But what we got was pretty epic and well worth the wait!!! We got the entire cast of Arrow, most of the cast of The Flash, the entire cast of Gotham, the entire cast of Legends of Tomorrow and then most of the cast from Supergirl and they did indeed show us the pilot for Supergirl.

It started with Steven Amell coming on stage in his new Green Arrow outfit and then it was one surprise after the other. We got some spoilers for each series, they told us about some upcoming characters for each show. Since con was earlier this year most of the shows just went back into production so they didn't really have any new footage to show us but it was still pretty awesome. It's always a blast to see and hear the actors live. You get to see their relationships, who are the loud ones and and the quiet ones.

About 2/3's through the presentation their was a break and these "circus" people preformed. I can't recall the name of the troupe and don't have a clue why they even preformed but it was a nice break to stretch your legs, go to the restroom or grab something to eat. Since I didn't have to do any of those I sat there perplex but still it was entertaining.

To end the panel we got to see the pilot for Supergirl. I had no idea that the pilot leaked online a few months ago so this was all new to me and I was excited to see it as I'm a huge Superman fan. Overall I enjoyed it. It's defiantly has more of a Flash feel then an Arrow feel. We are told that all these character exist in the same universe which is pretty cool and could mean a cross over one day. And since Superman exists in this Supergirl universe that means he exists in The Flash and Arrow universe as well. I liked all the characters especially the main women who is playing Supergirl, Melissa Benoist. I don't know much about here but she's very cute and personable. I can't wait for the new seasons of all these series.. they are currently some of my favorite shows on TV.

The panel got out around 11:45pm and I headed back to the hotel to find my brother just chilling. We were both hungry so we headed down the the restaurant to grab some dinner but found out that they stop serving food at 10pm but the waitress said that we could still order room service. So back up to the room we went and ordered some very expensive but tasty burgers. Finally got to bed around 2am which meant I wasn't going to do a NerdStrong workout tomorrow morning.. again.

You can check out all my 2015 San Diego Comic Con pictures HERE. 

Day 2 - San Diego Comic Con

After this mornings workout I headed back to my room and began transforming into a Hobbit. I debated on cosplaying or not this time around. I didn't want to do the same Frodo/Bilbo Baggins that I've done the past five years and I was working on updating my feet and building a backpack so I could cosplay as Samwise Gamgee. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get new feet and I ran out of time for making the backpack. So I decided not to cosplay but last week friends started posting pictures and tweets about their cosplay and I started to feel the itch so just to be safe I brought my Frodo/Bilbo cosplay and my five year old feet. And I'm so happy I did as when we pulled into San Diego and I saw all the craziness of comic con I knew I was going to cosplay.

So I started by shaving off my beard as Hobbits don't have beards. This being my fifth year of being a Hobbit I'm pretty good at putting on my own ears and had them on within ten minutes. I suited up and dawned on the wig. I had to curl a bit of it but in the end I think it looked pretty good. Now it was time for the feet. I have had cracks and tears in the past but super glue is my friend and for the most part the feet have really stayed together pretty well.. goes to show you the quality of Greg Aronowitz's work. One foot always seems to go on with ease and the other is a struggle and this was no different. But by 10am I was ready to head to con.

Michael and I met up with Chris and Hayley down the hotel lobby and we headed over to con. Along the way there was this tree that I thought would be perfect for me to pose at. So I stopped and Hayley took a few pictures of me.

We got to the sales floor and walked around a bit, I got stopped here and there for pictures as did my friends who were also cosplaying. Around noon we headed out to lunch and went back to the Syfy Cafe as it was close to the convention center and Chris was cosplaying as Admiral Thrawn and couldn't be in the sun for a long period of time. Usually when we go to the cafe we wait ten, fifteen minutes but we had a very large party so it was going to take a bit longer but the table that could accommodate us was being occupied by another large group who were taking their time and meandering. So we waited almost an hour for our table and just when we thought we were getting the table they grabbed another large group that was after us.. well we jumped into action and made sure we got the table next, which we did so we finally ate.

During lunch I got a text from my buddy Brett who was in Ballroom 20 and he said that there wasn't a line to get in for the Shield and Agent Carter panel happening in a few hours. So when lunch was over we all headed back to the convention center and I departed my group to head up to Ballroom 20. By the time I got there the line was long, but I figured I had an hour and a half to get in so I jumped in. Unfortunately the line moved extremely slow and doubt started to sink in. Friends Eva and Steve joined me in line and we waited and hoped. Finally 20 minutes after the panel had started we gave up. We were still 100 or so people out and there was no way we were getting into the panel. I said my goodbyes and headed over to another panel.

Side note... while I was in line for Ballroom 20 I noticed that the big toe on my right Hobbit foot split in half. Luckily it was located right on the tip and didn't seem to get any bigger when I walked.

I made it to the Tolkien "What's Next" panel, this was hosted by TheOneRing.Net fansite. As always it was an interesting panel with some cool information about the upcoming blu-ray and what's next for the world of Middle-earth. After the panel about 20 or so of us headed outside to do a Middle-earth photo shoot. Talk about a frenzy, when we got down there we as a group took several pictures but then we stayed around for another 30 minutes or so having our pictures taken by passerby's, it's was kind of fun.

After the photo shoot I headed back inside to find my buddies who were roaming the sales floor. Soon my friends headed back to the hotel to change and I hung out at the con until the sales floor closed at 7. On my way back to the hotel I ran into my brother in his Wheeljack cosplay heading into the Gaslamp district to cause some madness.

I de-hobbited and headed back out to a Guildies get-together at a local bar. While I was walking I walked passed Ashley Eckstein (Ahsoka Tano from The Clone Wars/Rebels). I adore her, she's an uber geek and seems to be one of the nicest people on the planet. She was actually in the panel before the Tolkien one so I got to see her talk for a bit there... anyways all I managed to do was say Hi Ashley as I passed by her.. she turned her head, smiled and said hi in return. It was a quick exchange but it was pretty awesome.

So I made my way to the bar and in the back sat about 30 or so Guildies. It was great seeing everyone. I quickly made my rounds and made sure I said hi to everyone. I got a one on one picture with everyone as well. I hung out for an hour or two before teaming up with Brian and Bryan and heading over to the Legendary/Nerdist/Geek & Sundry Party. This was one of the top 10 parties to be at according to the Hollywood Reporter. I wasn't going to go as I'm not really a "big" party person but Brian said that I should at least stop by and thank Felicia (Day) for the invite.. and he was right.

Now there is a story here. I got an email inviting me to this party. I responded with my name and a +1. I spoke to several other people and they told me that they were not allowing plus ones but somehow I got one. I doubled checked my email and it said that me and my plus one were on the list. So I asked my best bud Chris if he wanted to go but, as expected, he declined as he didn't want to go without his girlfriend Hayley. I debated on asking other close friend of mine who was at the guildie party but then thought better of it. If I invited one of them and not the others someones feelings would be hurt. So I opted to invite my friend Bryan. We've worked together on The Guild but he's not really part of my inner circle of friends.

We got to the Petco center (where the party was happening) and there was a large group of people hanging outside. Some were lookie loos hoping to spot a celebrity and some were people trying to get in and having issues. I was a bit worried about my plus one thinking that maybe it was just a mistake but when I went up to the front and showed them my drivers license, they asked if my plus one was with me, so I quickly grabbed Bryan and said.. right here. We got in with no issues. The party was already in full swing. It was open bar until midnight so we grabbed a few drinks and ventured deeper into the crowds. We found Felicia fairly early on. She greeted me with a giant smile and hug. As she was hugging me she said into my ear "Oh you are one of the lucky few who got a plus one". She said they had to turn away 2000 requests to come to the party. I asked her why that was and this is the best part of the story. She said her boss at Legendary saw my name on the list and said to Felicia "Oh you know Kenny Mittleider", Felicia of course said yay and he then went on to tell her that he use to PA (Production Assistant) for me many years ago. I asked Felicia what his name was and she said Chris Michael. My jaw dropped, Chris was a PA on a show I did about 10 years ago. We use to hang out outside of work here and there but really haven't talked or been in contact with each other for a while. But when he saw my name he said.. Yeah let's give Kenny a plus one. So I guess it goes to show you, be kind to your underlings because you never know when they might be the big shot. But the mystery was solved and I think it's a pretty awesome story.

So after that I had to find Chris to thank him and we grabbed another drink. I ran into a few more friends and chatted for a bit. The entire thing was pretty surreal. There were actual celebrities there, I recognized a few like Lana Parrilla who plays Regina from Once Upon A Time, or Misha Collins who plays Castiel from Supernatural or Carlos Valdes (Cisco) from The Flash. And that's just to name a few. I got to actually talk to Felicia for a bit while she took a break from the party. It was funny because Joss Wheadon was behind us chatting with a soaked shirt as he was a mad man on the dance floor.

Though I planned to only stay a very short time I didn't leave until 1:30am but I did have a pretty fantastic time. I got back to the hotel and chatted with my brother for a half hour before finally going to bed around 2am. Yeah no NerdStrong workout for me tomorrow morning.

You can check out all my 2015 San Diego Comic Con pictures HERE.