Saturday, April 9, 2011

Podcasting and Cleaning

Busy busy day today.. at 10am Jenni came over so we could record the next two episode of Knights of the Guild podcast. My new streamlined effort is really working out. What would take us 2 or 2 1/2 hours to record we get done at most in an hour and a half. Of course we sit around and chat for another hour but at least the podcasts are recorded.. now I just have to edited at least one of them before April 15th.

The rest of the day was spent cleaning the house from top to bottom. Harry's family is flying in from Austria tomorrow and staying with us for a few weeks and this will be the first time they are seeing the house... so it has to sparkle.

It was a long day of cleaning but in between the cleaning we had to go to Enterprise and rent a van for the family.. that took a bit longer then expected so we were cleaning until around 8pm when I only had a few more things to do but had to stop because I had a MASH Swampcast due to be released at midnight and I hadn't even started editing it. So I opted to finishing cleaning tomorrow morning (his family fly into LAX at 12:30pm) so there should be plenty of time.

So this SwampCast is a special MASH 4077 Podcast, it's were the three hosts (Meds, Al and I ) read comments that our listeners have left for us. Luckily it's pretty straight forward and not to difficult to edit. I got down around 11:30pm and waited until midnight to post it.

Like I said.. busy busy Saturday.

Friday, April 8, 2011

(Singing) It's Friday.. Friday...

Had a few tense moments this morning but I am 100% better.. must have been a 24 hour stomach flu or something I ate didn't agree with me.. but I'm doing better.

Work was busy.. getting close to onlining (finishing) some episodes and MTV has so many little details you have to follow it's crazy. I'm created charts just to keep track of everything.

I finished editing my next MASH podcast episode #6. Harry's family is coming into town this weekend and going to be staying with us for a few weeks so I'm trying to get as much done as I can before they get here.

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Work, Sickness & Podcasts

Today I got to work from home, I'm really enjoying this and so thankful for my job for allowing me to do this twice a week. Not only does it save me the stress of being in traffic for my 4 hour commute (round trip) and spending an additional $50 in gas a week but it also allows me to relax when I'm not feeling so good.

It started the night before when I went to bed and I couldn't relax.. my muscles kept tensing up and I was having mini anxiety attacks.. I finally fell asleep around 1am but woke up around 3am with some stomach pains and really didn't go back to sleep. Finally got up around 8:30am and started my day, was still having stomach issues but I was determined not to be sick so I logged into work and everything was moving along until around lunch time when the nausea really started to hit me. I told Harry I was not going to eat lunch as the though of eating made me more nauseated... so there was no choice but to accept that I had some kind of bug because if I'm not eating or feeling the urge to eat then there has to be something wrong with me.

For the next few hours I laid in my recliner not doing much (keeping my iPhone next to me) as I was still working and answering emails and such. I did eat a bit around 3 but that didn't go over to well so I opted to stop and just drink some water.

Around 8pm I started to feel a bit better but still had no appetite, so I took a chance to sit at my computer and finish editing my next MASH 4077 Podcast episode 6, which I finished around 10pm. I created the show notes and uploaded the podcast to podbean and it is now ready for it's release on April 15th.

I was getting hungry now but was afraid to eat anything that would upset my stomach so I opted for crackers and then went to bed... hoping to fee better tomorrow.

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

This Crazy Ride Called Life...

Lately my life has felt like it's been careening out of control. My MASH 4077 podcast is doing great, we've gotten over 3100 downloads in a matter of two months. I'm currently producing two episodes a month, but I'm hoping to do 3 or even 4 a month, if I can get a jump on them, since we record 4 episodes about ever three weeks, currently we've record up to Ep16 .. if we continue to release 2 a month it will take us 20 years to get through the entire series.

My Knights of the Guild Podcast is still going strong and I'm getting ready for CompanionCasts for Season 5 of The Guild and that's going to be a nice juggle between my actual work (were I make money) and being on set to do the podcast recordings.

I'm still trying to get my 3rd Geeky podcast going called Epic Geek Out, I had hoped to get it up and running by the end of April but with everything on my plate I'm not sure that's even going to happen.

With all the rain and snow we've gotten up at our place the weeds have gone crazy and we have 2 1/2 acres of them. So on my weekends I try and take at least an hour or two to do some weeding. Though it seems like an endless task.

Also Harry's family is coming into town this Sunday from Austria.. and though we are not longer together I still want to hang out with them because they will always be part of my family. And they are staying for a few weeks with us at our house. So we've been trying to clean an organize everything for their arrival.

I'm still researching my internet radio idea and working on a podcast/online media hub, though both of those are very slow going, but still in the works

And I really want to get back into volunteering with children.. I have volunteered in the past being a "Big Brother" working with HIV/Aids adults and children. I really miss the joy that those experiences brought me and would love to get back into it at some level.

So there is just so much going on in my life at the moment and I think I'm spreading myself a bit too thin. I was sick for almost three months and finally feel a bit better. I have so many great ideas for more podcasts I want to start. I want to get back into writing.. I use to write poetry and have several movie script idea halfway written..  but I just don't seem to have any free time. I want to hang out with friends more but that's not working out..  I've started to keep a list of things I want to do in the near future and the list gets bigger and bigger every week. I also want to start traveling as I haven't seen much of the world and now that I'm single I figure this is the best time...

Life is crazy at the moment.. but my issues are good issues to have. I'm extremely happy at what I've accomplished so far and am very fortunate for the people I have met along the way.

Life is good.. though a bit hectic. :)

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Tron on Blu-Ray

Well today Harry and I drove around trying to find both of the Tron blu-ray movies that I was looking for.. I wanted to get the Tron: Original 2 disc blu-ray and the Tron: Legacy 4 disc blu-ray.  We drove to two targets and a best buy and none of them had exactly what I wanted. The first Target had nothing.. completely sold out of all the blu-ray editions of both movies. The second Target had 3 of the Original Tron 2 disc blu-ray but only the 2 disc Tron Legacy blu-ray. I then went to best buy and they finally had the 4 Disc Tron Legacy blu-ray, but was out of the Original Tron. And Target had a deal where you purchased both movies Tron and Tron Legacy and get $8 off, Best Buy did not. Both Best Buy and Target had a deal for an additional $5 off if you got the 4 or 5 disc edition. So I didn't want to come home empty handed after traveling all over the place so I went back to the 2nd Target and got the original Tron 2 disc blu-ray and Tron Legacy 2 disc, got 8 dollars off because I bought both of them, but not the $5 dollars off because I didn't get the 4 or 5 disc. So I wound up paying $31.98 which isn't bad for 2 blu-rays and 2 DVD of each movie. The 4 disc one had a 3D disc but I don't have a 3D Blu-ray player and it also came with a digital copy but again I can make my own if I really want a digital copy. So in the end it's not exactly what I was looking for but it's what I need to enjoy both of these movies.

Monday, April 4, 2011

100 Facts About Me 61 - 70

Well it's been a few weeks or so since I started this and I have to say it's hard to think of 100 facts about me.. not only facts about me but interesting facts.. I mean I can tell you 100 things about me and most wouldn't not be interesting.. that's the tough part. Anyways here is my next batch.

61. My middle name is Harvey, named after my grandfather.
62. I can't spell to save my life, thank goodness for spellcheckers.
63. My childhood nickname was KenKen, as my dad went by Kenny.
64. Use to have a speech impediment when I was younger, took many years to over come, still have it slightly.
65. For those who haven't met me in person I'm short, standing at a proud 5 foot 3 1/2 inches.
66. Favorite book series would be a toss up between Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings.
67. Favorite Star Trek Series, TNG, followed closely by Voyager & DS9, also enjoy Enterprise and TOS.
68. Though I work on The Guild I've never played WoW, nor played alot of video games.
69. As I get older I try and enjoy my life more as there is less of it.
70. I'm a 1st time Uncle & his name is Kenobi (22months). 

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Quidditch Western Cup Regionals - Day 2

Day two of the Quidditch Western Cup Regionals. Since I had stuff to actual do this weekend I didn't get to the pitch until after lunch time. I knew I would miss a few play off games but I really wanted to be there for the semi-finals and finals. So I got to the park around 2:30pm, just in time for the kid quidditch games. I also met up with my friend Bruce who was actually just about to leave and then again with my other friend Aaron who was also leaving... Both had been there since the AM.

After the kids quidditch they made just one pitch for the start of the semi-final. I wish they would have done just one pitch the entire time. The field was larger and there wasn't any distraction of other players crossing into each other pitches. Anyways everyone moved their seats ten feet in to be closer to the action (at our own risk, of course). There were two semi-finals and then the winners from those semi-finals would play in the final.

The first semi-final was between UCLA and ASU (Arizona State) and ASU won. The second semi-final was between USC and Cal. Berkeley and USC won. So the final match was between USC Trojans and ASU Sun Devils and the ASU ran away with the match and took the championship.. Congratulations Arizona State University.

I have to say that these final three games were the best of the weekend. They were action packed, the quaffle changed from hand to hand so fast. Bludgers were nailing people left and right. This was Quidditch at it's best.

Something I didn't mention in my previous blog but all the announcers were funny and entertaining. Some tried to bring you further into the world of Harry Potter by mention players moves and saying something like.. "we haven't seen a move like that since the 1853 World cup" and then they would go into a story about that. Other announcers would give really funny play by play of the game calling the players by their own "special' names.. we had sweet foot, sholeggings, curly, and so on... so much fun.

I sit here Sunday evening just having spent the entire weekend watching this very magical event and I still can't believe it. I was at a Quidditch match not only did I watch live Quidditch I watched about 20 games of Quidditch spanning a weekend. It was great surrounding myself with other die hard Harry Potter fans. And theses guys are not just die hard fans they are extremely talented athletes.

They are doing more of these regional events through out the country and in Canada. And I would suggest if you are a Harry Potter fan to attend and show your support. You can check out the schedule at their official website http://www.internationalquidditch.org

And in November they are having the Quidditch World Cup with over 60 teams participating over a 2 days of action packed fun. I'm going to start making plans to attend this year. And I'm going to see if I can find local teams that play.. not only to watch but to see if I can join in on one

I now understand why the Wizarding world loves their Quidditch.

Be sure to check out the 305 pictures that I took during the two days.. Album 1  http://ow.ly/4skMx & Album 2  http://ow.ly/4skNM Also I'll be posting video of the event as well in the near future.