New Glasses

So Harry and I headed out to Santa Clarita to our local LensCrafters to get new glasses. I haven't gotten new glasses in over four years and Harry hasn't gotten new ones in over three years.  I've also noticed that I was having a tough time reading small print in low light and recently have been getting headaches so it was long over due for new glasses.

So we got to LensCrafters around 3:30pm and they were packed and I also noticed that they Eye Exam place took their last appointment at 4:20 so I figured we'd have to make appointment for tomorrow but when I asked if there was any chance of getting two appointments today they said yes and booked us for 4pm and 4:20pm. So as we waited we walked around and looked at different frames. It's crazy how expensive frames can be, but we stayed in the $99 area, but were frames there for over $200. A few minutes later a Carlos came up to us and took us both into a back room to do the pre-exam. We answered questions, filled out a form and then he proceeded to do some eye test.. ie. read letters, take pictures of the back of our eye, blow puffs of air in our eyes... not sure how all that works but they are suppose to be able to tell how blind we are by all those tests.

Next was the doctor visit, he puts that thing over your eyes and says.. #1 or #2 over and over and you tell him what's best. That test only take a few minutes and then he tells you what's wrong. Mine eyesight or lack there of is nothing but age. My eyes look fine, nothing in the back of my eyes... everything looked great. So I have typical "old man" eyes and he said it was get progressively worse in the next 15 years (yay me).

Up to this point I have always used single layer glasses, but he said he wanted to change that to progressive glasses (and honestly I didn't have a clue what he meant) I said.. sure. So he wrote up the prescription and the visit was over. Harry came out a few minutes later and said that they wanted to take additional pictures of the back of his eyes as they saw something. They dilated his eyes and we went out to find some frames. After picking out a few we asked Sarah (another associate) which ones she liked on our face and she picked out the two that we liked for ourselves.

We paid the bill, I was expecting a $1000 but it was only $600, which isn't bad for two pairs of glasses and the exams. Harry went back in to get the second set of pictures, a few minutes later he came out and said that in one of his eyes is the very early stages of a cataract, which he'll have to get taken care of when he is back in Austria. We then had to wait an hour so we walked around the mall. Around 6pm we headed back and picked up our glasses. Here is when I found out what progressive lenses meant. Progressive lenses are tri-focal. So the top third is from distance, the middle third is for a few feet and the lower third is for reading.  And wow talk about getting use to this. I very much dislike it at the moment but I'm sure I'll get use to it and remember what third to look through at the appropriate time. But man what a difference it makes in reading small print..just have to get use to these tri-focal lenses.

Skype Chats and Interviews

This morning was a busy one. Got up had some breakfast then jumped on my computer to join in on a Treks in Sci Fi Skype chat Podcast. Rico (host of Trek SF) will have skype calls a few times a year where he gets listeners together to chat about geeky things, TV, movies, tech.. bunch of different topics. I haven't been able to join the past few so I was going to make sure I made this one. This one started at 10am my time and it went on until about Noon and then we continued to chat about half hour or so. It's always fun talking to my friends that I hang out with on the Treksf forums.

After the skype chat I had to do an interview for Podcast Squared. It's podcast about podcast and podcasters. I did an interview for them last year about Knights of the Guild but this year we were talking about  my new MASH 4077 Podcast. Also joining me for the interview were my co-hosts Al and Meds. We had a great time talking about our love of MASH and why we started the podcast. The interview lasted about 45 minutes and will be released soon.

Finally got done around 1pm, got ready and headed out with Harry to have lunch and see if we could get new glasses.

My New iPhone

Well I finally joined the crowd and got me an iphone. My AT&T contract was up today and the fact that my last phone was damaged it was time to get a new phone. And just a few weeks ago AT&T reduced the price of their 3GS iPhones to only $49.99. Now I debated on getting a iPhone or a Droid but in the end the price is what sold me on the iPhone. So I ordered the phone online and it arrived two days later. I took the SIM card out of my old phone and put into my new iphone and everything seemed to be working just fine but I did notice that the phone kept saying I had no data plan selected, which didn't make sense since you can't buy a iPhone without selecting a data plan which I did. So today I called AT&T and when I put in my phone number it said that my phone had not been activated yet, which I thought was strange as I was getting texts and surfing the net (via wifi) but it asked if I wanted to activate it and I said yes thinking this would activate my data plan.

Well a few minutes later I had no service at all and the only thing I could do was use the wifi to surf the net. So I called AT&T again and after chatting with a customer service person I came to find out that you can't just switch your SIM cards like they do in the stores. If you purchase your phone over the internet they give you a brand new SIM card and that phone is attached to that card.. so when I activated the phone it activated the new SIM card (which was sitting on the desk at home) so my phone became useless the last half of the day today. But when I did get home and put in the correct SIM card everything worked fine and the phone is FANTASTIC!!!!

J.R.R. Tolkien - Silmarillion

I finished listening to The Silmarillion and it was FANTASTIC!!!! For those who don't know what this book is about, it the History of Middle Earth. Here's a quick synopsis;

The Silmarillion comprises five parts. The first part, Ainulindalë, tells of the creation of Eä, the "world that is". Valaquenta, the second part, gives a description of the Valar and Maiar, the supernatural powers in Eä. The next section, Quenta Silmarillion, which forms the bulk of the collection, chronicles the history of the events before and during the First Age, including the wars over the Silmarils which gave the book its title. The fourth part, Akallabêth, relates the history of the Downfall of Númenor and its people, which takes place in the Second Age. The final part, Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age, is a brief account of the circumstances which led to and were presented in The Lord of the Rings.

Now I was told that this book is a really tough read and I couldn't agree more. Luckily I listened to the audiobooks, during my commutes and it was as though someone was reading me these remarkable stories.There is so much details and history of Middle Earth that I never knew about. What we see in The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings is such a small amount of time, it's pretty crazy.

I was totally 100% sucked into this history lesson. There are so many names to remember that it's impossible to get them all after one reading (listen). I know I'll be listening to these stories again and again and I hope with each listen I'll be able to retain more and more of this rich history.

This was a wonderful, wonderful addition to this world, it just blows my mind that this all came from one mans imagination. The worlds he creates are just increable, the history, the characters and the laguage are just remarkable. I know there are other works by Tolkien and his family that continue to expand the world of Middle Earth and I can't wait to get a hold of them... can't get enough of Middle Earth.

Dinner with Venom

Tonight I had the honor of having dinner with the wonderful and very sweet Teal Sherer; actress, producer, writer, best known within my circles as Venom from The Guild. She and I bonded the first day we meet. There was just something about her that was special, you know that feeling that you'll be friends the rest of your lives...yeah we had that. What is funny is we've hung out on The Guild set and at parties but never one on one so last week we made plans to have dinner and just hang out and enjoy ones company and that's exactly what we did tonight.

Got to spend a few hours just hanging out and getting to know each other a little better. It was a perfect way to end a not so great day at work... good food and a great friend

Thanks Teal for being you :)

BTW.. the picture is from Felicia's Christmas Party last year.

SwampCast #1 - Listener Feedback

Download from itunes http://tinyurl.com/MASH4077itunes or listen/direct download http://bit.ly/eXCRxT

Here is our very first SwampCast #1, a SwampCast is a non-regular show.. meaning we will not be reviewing an episode in this podcast. These SwampCasts will come out now and then and cover "cast" interview, or listener feedback or anything else that we want to share with the listeners that doesn't fit into our regular show review episodes.

Our first SwampCast #1 covers Listener Feedback for our first three episodes.


Hope you enjoy it,
Kenny, Meds, & Al

Find Us on the Web:
Main website - http://MASH4077Podcast.com
Twitter - @MASH4077Podcast
Facebook Fan Page - http://www.facebook.com/MASH4077Podcast
MASH 4077 Podcast Blog - http://www.MASH4077Podcast.blogspot.com
Email Us - MASH4077Podcast@Gmail.com

Interview & Podcasts

Today was a busy day at work, but at 6:30pm I had scheduled to do an interview for my friend Chris on his Tech Barbarians podcast. He's been making his way through The Guild cast and crew and it was my turn. The interview is doing live on Ustream so you kind of have a live audience. So before the chat I was chatting with them in the chat room. The first hour of the interview was great, we talked about my career, The Guild, how I got into podcasting, Knights of the Guild and MASH 4077 Podcast. Then I was podbombed by Sean Becker and all craziness ensued (btw... Podbombing is when you are doing an interview and someone joins in via skype) . I couldn't even tell you what we talked about.. then Brian Kameoka podbombed the interview and finally Brett Sheriden podbombed the podcast... it was chaos but so much fun. The last hour of the interview was a big blurr. about and hour and a half into the interview the phones here at work died and I scrabbled to get connected again. I was finally able to connect with them again over skype on my little netbook. 15 minutes had passed so there was only another 15 minutes left in the show. Finished up the interview with letting folks know where they can find me online and came to realized that I am all over the internet... it's kind of crazy.

Anyways the interview was a ton of fun other then the dropped call, being podbombed by Sean, Brian and Brett was fantastic and the hosts of Tech Barbarians Chris and Mark were wonderful.. I'll post a link to the podcast when it is released (which should be a few days).

After that I got home around 10pm.. had some dinner, watched a bit of TV and then realized that I wanted to have a new MASH 4077 mini cast out by the 10th (which was the next day), both of my co-hosts were kind enough to get my the info I requested from there to me in time. So thought I was tired I took an half hour to record my bits. I then uploaded everything into Avid and started to edit. Got done with the very first SwampCast at around 1am, but I was able to output, levelize, convert and upload everything and post it to podbean and by the time I did that it was the 10th so I accomplished what I set out to do.

Tired, I went to bed, watched some Robot Chicken before falling asleep around 1:30am

Editing Podcasts, Geeky Shirts & iPhones

So today while on a break at work I checked out ATT.com to see about getting a new phone (if you read my blog you know I lost my last phone in a urinal incident), well today is the day were my contract ends and I can get a new phone cheap/free. I was also updating my dad's phone as he's become a texter and wants a texting phone. So I found him a really cool "texting" phone called Pantech Impact, it was $250 but of course you sign another 2 year agreement and they give you the phone for free.. so that is what I did.

Next was my phone.. I had been going back and forth about getting an iphone or a android phone. Well there were very few "free" smart phones to choose from and the androids were hundreds of dollars. I had heard that iPhone just reduced the price of their 3GS iPhones to $50 bucks and when that option came up I couldn't resist and had to get one. So I am, or will be in two days, the proud owner of a new iPhone.

When I got home from work today there was a package for me. I've been on this kick buying a lot of geeky tshirts for $10 bucks.. well I had purchased another one and it arrived today. I couldn't pass it up and what is really great is that only "really" geeky people will get what it is.  I love this shirt.

So I had some dinner and tried to catch up on some TV (fall further and further behind) at 10pm I had to editing my podcasts. I have several podcasts due on the 15th, which is a week away. I've been working on my MASH 4077 Podcast #4 the past few days and tonight I wanted to finished it. All I had to do was add the audio clips from the episode and do my final audio pass, output, levelize it, convert and then upload to podbean, took about 2 hours so I was done around midnight.

One down and one to go, Knight of the Guild Ep. 26

Itunes Top 100

Woke up today and checked the status of my podcasts. Last night MASH 4077 Podcast was at #157 and Knights of the Guild was at #186 but today when I checked itunes Top 200 TV/Film Audio Podcasts list. MASH 4077 Podcast had jumped to #60 and Knights of the Guild had gone up to #91. Both of my podcasts are in the Top 100. I was very excited, as this is the first time that both of my podcasts have broken into the top 100. And if I recall this is the highest that MASH 4077 Podcast has reached. My Knights of the Guild podcast got to #3 about a year ago with our first interview with Felicia Day and she tweeted about it. I'm just excited when my podcasts hit the list as there are thousands of podcasts and to rank in the top 200 is very special. Thanks to everyone for your continued support.

Plays, Famliy & Podcasts

Got up around 9am, checked my emails and then started to make some breakfast for Troy, who had stayed the night. We had breakfast and then watched "Into the Woods" it's a Broadway musical that was filmed on put on DVD. It's was really good, it's about some of our childhood fairy tales (Red Riding Hood, Jack and the Beanstalk, Cinderella, Baker and his wife) and what happens once their stories are over. I have to say it's not what you expect. Had some great songs, good acting and funny and tragic. Would love to see this live if is ever comes to Los Angeles area.

After it was over Troy headed home and I headed out to see my family (Dad, Brother, Sister-in-law & Nephew). Had lunch with my Dad and then hung out with everyone for a few hours. I love hanging out with my family, wish I could do it more then every other week.

Once home, I had dinner with Harry and watched the latest Amazing Race. I then started working on my next episode of MASH 4077 Podcast. I cut the three hosts audio together, did a pass to tighten it up and started to add some audio clips from the TV episode but was to exhausted to finish. Should only take another hour or so to finish that one and then I have to work on the next episode of Knights of the Guild.

So all in all a fun Friday,Saturday and Sunday.. got some podcasts work done, got to hang out with friends and family and did a bit of relaxing. Ready for a new week.