Happy New Year 2011

 

I hope everyone has a fantastic and prosperous  

2011

A Healthier Me - Day 139

Missed my workout yesterday so I made up for some of it today.

Today's Workout:

1 hour of cardio on the elliptical
4 sets of 10 on the chest fly for my chest (75 lbs)
4 sets of 10 on the curl arm for my biceps (45 lbs)
4 sets of 10 working on my back (75 lbs)
4 sets of 10 for shoulders (45 lbs)
4 sets of 10 on the front leg press (45 lbs)


Was suppose to only do cardio today but since I missed yesterday I did some weights as well. So not a bad ending to my workouts for 2010. Again didn't meet my goal of being below 200 by years end but I should be able to hit there in a month or two. At least I'm going into 2011 healthier then I did going into 2010.

Harry Potter Goodies - Vlog

Here's another Video Blog.. talking about more of my Christmas gifts..all Harry Potter related.

2010 - A Look Back

This has been an interesting year for me, as are most years. There were lots of up and several downs. I was going to review this year month by month but instead I think I'm just going to try and group topics together and take a look back at 2010.

This year started out with me being stuck in a horrible job working for a man who didn't understand the meaning of a schedule. I did get another job offer, a 2 month gig down in South Africa for the World Series of Soccer, but declined it as it would have cut into our vacation plans and SDCC. So I was suck with my current job, I wouldn't quit because, first of all I've only quit one job in my life and if I quit I wouldn't be able to collect unemployment.. so I suffered until April when finally he decided we could no longer work together and they let me go (happiest day of my life). Of course I didn't know then that I would be out of a job for 7 months and have to pull half of my saving out just to pay the mortgage and living expenses. But in October I did get a job with MTV, it's a very long commute but really good pay. And it lasts until August of 2011.

During my down time with work Harry and I did take a trip to the Pacific Northwest of the United States. It was 17 Days, 8 States and over 4000 miles, we had lots of fun, we got to meet one of my long time online friend Rick Moyer and his family and that was a highlight of the trip. We saw so many beautiful sites and got to experience some very cool things.

We've had our ups and down with our new house, we had our 1 year anniversary in 2010, we also finally finished remodeling/painting/decorating the inside of the house. We had snow here for the first time in years, it was only a few inches and didn't last the day but it was cool none the less. But we had several bad things happen as well.. Wildfires, we had several wildfires around us this year.. one you could see burning from our backyard.. luckily it was going in the opposite direction from us. And our well broke and cost a few thousands to fix. Of course there are the occasional leaks and battles with woodpeckers but for the most part this house has been great.

2010 has been a great year for The Guild and my Knights of the Guild podcast. The Guild released S4, several comic books and Lil'Gulidies all to raving reviews.. The podcast had it's 1 year anniversary in February, We took the podcast to a whole new level for Season 4 of The Guild and created Companioncasts which is a first ever for a webseries and podcast. It was a huge success and I hope to do it again for Season 5. Knights of the Guild was nominated for a People's Choice Podcast Award for Best Entertainment Podcast. We lost to The Fringe Podcast but it was truly an honor to be nominated among thousands of podcasts. We hit record downloads for the month of October, we had over 40,000 downloads that month. We've been upgrading our podcast equipment.. got a new computer and second monitor and it's made podcasting much easier.

It's been a great TV and Movie season, there have been lots of TV that I have loved this year like; Glee, Big Bang Theory, Clone Wars, No Ordinary Family, Doctor Who, and the resurrected old TV series V, which started off rocky but ended strong and I can't wait for the second season in 2011. As for great movies I've loved Percy Jackson, The Last Airbender, Ironman 2, Shrek 4, Toy Story 3, Clash of the Titans (remake), The Sorcerer's Apprentice, Kick Ass, Narnia 3, Tron 2 and of course Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 1 which was just phenomenal.

Read/Listened to some new book series and really loved them... The Underland Chronicles was a really great series that my friend Christopher suggested. And I'm almost finished with the Percy Jackson Series. The fifth book had some missing chapters on the CD so I had to stop an not complete it.. well not yet at least. I really loved those books.

Went to San Diego Comic Con for my seventh year in a row and had a fantastic time. Even though it gets busier and busier I continue to go and have fun. I get to meet loads of my online friends, which is always a major plus, the past few years I've gotten to help out The Guild booth which is fun. I don't go to get swag or see panels.. I go to hang out with some of the coolest and geekiest people I know and I love it. A highlight from this years con was going to Flynn's Arcade, one of the best experiences I've had in a long time.. Tron rules!!!!

I turned 40 this year and it started to make me thing about my health and weight issues so I bought a home gym and started working out 5 days a week.. I've lost about 13 lbs so far and working to improve my diet and overall health.

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter opened in Florida and I SOOOOOOOOOO want to go but because of the lack of job and money I have put it off until 2011. But I'm very excited about seeing this cool new park.

I've have some of the best friends in the world.. some are online and some are in person.. I love them all. I've also met some great people this year, one very important person that I've met this year is my Padawan Troy, It's funny how it can take years to get to know someone and fell that connection or it can take seconds like it did with Troy. I've only had that experience with a few other friends and they are some of the closest people to me.

Here are some odds and ends for the year...This has been the best year for PGA (Producer's Guild of America) movie screeners..I've gotten about 30 of them and some of really big name movies. Had a really good Tax refund (because of the house) which allowed us to survive a bit during my hiatus from work. Visited Vasquez Rocks which is a few mile from our house, beautiful place. My yahoo email account has been broken into 3 times this year, no matter how many times or how hard I make my new password yahoo is being hacked every time. Got my first gaming console in years.. we got a Wii.. we wanted a communal gaming system for parties and friends.. it's also a good workout. It's been a roller coaster ride with Prop 8 the ban on gay marriages.. it's been in the court system and was overturned again but was appealed and is now waiting for that process to start.

Overall this has been a year of changes, growth, and finding ones self. I've had lots of good times and some not so good times. My love of all things geeky has grown and I've developed very close friendships. I've delved deeper into the social media with Twitter and facebook and am really enjoying it.  I'm also being listened to by 1000's of people a month, which is cool and kind of odd at the same time.

I suspect big changes for 2011, I hope to lose a significant amount of weight, become healthier and eat better. I want to see my friends more, hang out more of often and laugh alot more. I hope to travel a bit, to Florida for the Wizarding World of Harry Potter and hopefully a trip to England. What does the future holds I don't know.. but whatever it is.. I just have to enjoy every moment of it with the people that I love.

Tron Legacy

Well I was finally able to see Tron Legacy last night with my Padawan Troy. I drove out to his neck of the woods, Long Beach. Before Tron I had Chick-fil-A for the first time.. it was okay. I think my friends hyped it up so much I was expecting so much more.. I mean it's chicken on a bun with butter.

Anyways we saw Tron in 2D, as I was told many times that the 3D doesn't really enhance the film and isn't worth the extra money you have to pay... so 2D it was.

I saw the original Tron in a drive in double feature with Star Trek The Motion Picture back in the day. I feel asleep with Star Trek but was totally enveloped in the world of Tron and loved it... I was 12. Because I waited a few weeks to see this I have been hearing other peoples reviews of this movie.. beautiful special effects, horrible story.. blah blah blah. So my quick review.. I LOVED IT!!!!

I thought the SFX were incredible, my favor was the light cycle battle.. OMG.. the double level track was pure genius. I thought the Clu (Young Jeff Bridges) was done really well. There were a few times I could tell it was altered (CG'd) but for the most part it looked like a younger Jeff Bridges. I was excited to see Tron (Bruce Boxleitner) back and even see a younger version of him as well. I liked Corra, I liked that she was different from the users and programs.. and that she was last of her kind. I liked the ladies in white, Gem was one of them, very cool scene when Sam first goes into the Grid and they dress him.. that was pretty cool.

Now for the story, I'm not sure what everyone is complaining about.. the story made since to me, it's not complicated, it's a simple story from point A to point B. I didn't expect it to be deep.. I mean it's Tron. I enjoyed it very much.

Some people are complaining about the end but I thought it was a cool ending and even leaves it open for another sequel. I like that we see Tron dropping into the ocean and changing colors from bad (red) to good (blue) and not derezing.

The one thing I loved about the movie is that the world felt exactly the same as the first Tron movie. I mean the CG is updated and the costumes were tweaked a bit as were the vehicles but in essences it was the same Tron that I watched when I was a 12 year old kid... I can't wait to see it again.

A Healthier Me - Day 137

Totally forgot to workout this morning.. didn't remember until 12:30ish.. but got out there and my workout.

Today's Workout:

1 hour of cardio on the elliptical

Nothing special today.. no issues got out there and did my hour of cardio.. 

Knights of the Guild Ep 23 pt2

Download from itunes http://bit.ly/KotGCast or Direct Download / Listen at http://knightsoftheguild.com

 

Show Notes:

 

Here it is Episode 23 part 2 of Knights of the Guild. We hope you enjoy it.

 

Today’s show features:

• * First up we have a Classic Vorkism
• * We are recording this weeks podcast down and dirty live in our studios
• * We discuss Behind the Scenes of Season 3 Episode 11: Battle Royale
• * We have some Listener Feedback
• * GenCon Report from listener Troy
• * We also announce winners of our end of month contests for December as well as talk about continuing contests
• * We thank our donors.
• * Then Business Time (We continue to use contest submissions)
• * And finally our Good byes

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

Kenny & Jenni

Prince of Persia

Harry and I finally got around to watching Prince of Persia the Sands of Time. I got the blu-ray of the movie for my birthday back in September but really haven't had time to watch it. Now that I have ton of things to watch I handed Harry a bunch of movies and said lets watch a movie and he picked this one.. totally forgot I had it so I was happy that he choose it.

The movie stars one of my favorite actors Jake Gyllenhaal (doesn't hurt that he's a hottie) and I know it's based off a video game. I figured it would be like the Mummy movies which I really enjoyed. The movie starts off kind of slow and drags for a bit in the beginning but really picks up midway and is action packed until the very end. The story was cool and some of the fight scenes were awesome. I liked the different characters we meet along the way and how it kept you guessing who truly was the bad guy. It had some cool sfx and I enjoyed the cinematography. In the end it was exactly what I expected it to be.. a fun adventure/action/sfx movie.. exactly the escape you are looking for when going to the movies... or in this case watching on DVD.

Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader

Just got back from watching the third Narnia film. I'm a huge fan of the books and have enjoyed the movies so I was looking forward to seeing this. I know it's had a rough road getting made and will probably be the last film made from the series but this was an excellent film. I actually liked it better then the 2nd movie Prince Caspin.  Now it's been a few years since I have read the books (well actually listen since I have them on CD), but I did notice a few changes to the story and other things I wasn't quite sure if it was in the book or not.. but that didn't bother me. This was a fun fill roller coaster of a ride filled with great special effects, a simple and understandable story and some good acting. The two main kids have really grown up especially Lucy. I also enjoyed the introduction of Eustace who was exactly as I pictured him from the books. I left the theater very satisfied and wanting to re-listen to the entire series again. I do hope they make a fourth movie with Eustace and his adventures in Narnia but at least the finished the story of the four main children. Only downside to seeing this was it was only playing in 3D and cost $13.50 for matinees viewings.. and to be honest you don't have to see it in 3D. The 3D didn't enhance the film at all.. But I don't really care because I loved the movie so much it was wroth every penny. I may actually go see this again in the theater but will defiantly buy it on Blu-ray when it comes out. If you're a fan of the books series and have enjoyed the movie this is a must see.. you won't be disappointed.

A Healthier Me - Day 136

Got up around 9:30am and had planned to get out to the garage to workout but finally dragged my butt out there around 10:30am

Today's Workout:

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

It was a good workout.. cardio moved along with the help of some new podcasts and I've been pushing myself harder with the weights which feels great.. well not while I'm doing it.. but after wards I like the results.

A DVD Christmas

I always seem to get a ton of DVD's for Christmas but this year was "The Year of the DVD's" for me.

I got all nine seasons of Smallville, now I had asked for these from my brother as I knew he was doing Black Friday at Best Buy and they were selling each season for only $10 each and though I've only seen the first three seasons of Smallville I'm a huge fan and really wanted to see the rest.. so my brother got these for me.

Another deal I couldn't pass up was Madmen, I've never seen the series but have heard such good things from friends that when I saw that they were selling the three seasons on Blu-ray for $10 I couldn't pass it up and bought them... of course they are from Harry to me.

Another series that I love is Kyle XY.. it only lasted three seasons and those too were on sale on Amazon so I picked up all three seasons.

Another series that I'm getting into is True Blood, season 1 was on sale and you guessed it I had to get it. I'm also a huge V fan and have really been enjoying the new series so my brother picked me up season 1 of the new series.

While I was on amazon I got Big Bang Theory season 3 and a very cool kids cartoon that I use to love when I was younger Dungeons and Dragons.

Two more DVD's that I got were Princess Bride (which I was surprised I didn't have already) but I got it on Blu-ray and then my buddy Jeff got me White Christmas

And finally I got two of my all time favorite Scifi/Fantasy films from the 80's Willow and Krull

Like I said tons of DVD.. but I also got some Wii games (Star Wars and Harry Potter), socks, shirts and underwear. Several very cool Harry Potter items (ornaments, pins and a plaque). Oh and I almost forgot my Lord of the Rings Ring.. which is AWESOME.

It was a very good Christmas for me this year

A Healthier Me - Day 135

So I didn't workout on Christmas Eve as planned and since I'm off work this week I didn't have to get up at the crack of dawn and workout before work.. so it was a causal morning, Didn't get out there until 10am and had a good workout.

Since it's Monday I weight myself this morning 204.5

Today's Workout:

1 hour of cardio on the elliptical

Well this was unexpected but I lost a pound, from  205.5  to 204.5 I figured with the holidays and all the yummy foods I would have at least gained a pound or two but never thought I would lose.. so yay me. My workouts really just maintain my weight, I eat crappy but don't gain because of my workouts but I also don't lose or at least don't lose as much as I should.. for 2011 I'm going to focus on eating better and losing the weight. And then the real battle starts by keeping it off permanently.

Doctor Who Christmas Special 2010

First let me say that I'm a HUGE Doctor Who fan, I have loved every moment from when it first started re-airing in 2005 and I didn't think I could love it anymore then I already do.. but WOW..  I LOVED this Christmas Special and though it was one of the the best stories of all Who. Steven Moffat wrote my other favorite episodes of Who "Girl in the Fireplace" & "Blink" and he did it again with "A Christmas Carol". Previous Christmas specials have always been good, I've enjoyed them all but this one captured that special something that only Steven can capture. The acting was great, Matt Smith continued to impress me with his performance as The Doctor.. I swear he was born to play this character and he is fast becoming my favorite Doctor. Michael Gambon who I have enjoyed as Dumbledore did a fantastic job as the "Scrooge" of the story. All the actors were wonderful. One thing Steven can do is write characters.. all his characters are so engaging and you care for them instantly. But it truly was the story that stood out as something special. I laughed, I cried, I laughed some more. Moffat has a special talent of blending humor with sadness with just the right amounts of each. Though this story ends sadly it's still uplifting and only Moffat can write that to perfection. Another thing I enjoy about Moffat's writing are all the relationships that the Doctor make, be it with an young boy or an old man.. they are just magical and real. Oh one more thing.. I loved the fish and the CG was fantastic.. very whimsical.

I can't wait for the next season of Who.. it can't get here soon enough. I LOVE DOCTOR WHO!!!!