The Guild Season 5 - Day Seven

Today was a big day on set of the Guild. We were out in Pasadena and we had some very special guest stars which normally I couldn't talk about but many of them actually tweeted about being on set. So not so many secrets left. But it was a ton of fun. I got to meet some really great Guildes. I think we had over 40 extras. Got some good interviews with cast, guest cast and extras. I was fortunate enough to be an extra in several scenes. The picture to the right is one Brent Spiner posted on his tweeter account. I figured since it's out there I may as well use it in my blog. I'm huge Star Trek fan as many of you know but never really got to meet Brent, which bummed me out. But I did get to met and chat with other celebs. And fun day tomorrow.

Mini Nervous Breakdown

Well today didn't start off so well. If you are a regular reader of my blog I have been under a bit of stress as of late. I mean there always seems to be stress in my life but most of the time it's the good kind, The Guild, podcasting, social media stuff but my current job has started to pick up some steam and things are getting really stressful and on top of all the "fun" stress I have this job stress and the stress of not knowing if my Dad's cancer has returned (find out next week). So today some very little issue happened at work and I almost lost it.

My head started to hurt and I felt a tightness in my chest, I honestly thought I was having a heart attack. Two co-workers were standing in my office and I asked them to both leave and shut the door as I needed a minute to myself. I guess they didn't think that was a good idea as they both just stood there looking at me asking if I was alright. Seems I turned white as a ghost and my breathing was becoming shallow. The next few minutes are kind of a blur. I remember telling myself to calm down, to just breath and I guess it worked as a few minutes passed, color came back to my face and I was able to breath normally. I had a horrible headache but the chest pains were gone and I was feeling better.

I've had anxiety attacks in the past but this felt like nothing else I have ever experienced. I'm one who never yells, scream or get upset. I tend to push down those emotions and I'm guessing that that isn't good. I can only hold down so much before the pressure explodes. I'm guessing that's why a little thing like today, can set me off. I really need to work on releasing some of this stress and tension a little bit at a time so this doesn't happen again and I have a full mental nervous breakdown.

Getting a New Car

Dodge Caliber

Okay so I'm sooo over having a jeep and it's time for me to get a new car. And when I say new I want a brand new car, which, in my 40 years have never had. So I rented a Dodge Caliber a few years back and really liked it. I like the look and the feel. It got some good gas mileage and had some pick up for being a 4 cylinder. So that's been on the top of my list for a while now but then a few days ago I saw this very funky but cool looking car, a Nissan Juke. I never heard of them so I immediately looked it up on my iphone. I don't know how they ride or anything but I really like the look of them. I do know that both cars are comparable when it comes to gas mileage, Caliber gets 26/31 MPG and Juke gets 27/32 MPG. As for price Caliber costs just a bit less, between $17,000 - $19,000

Nissan Juke

and Juke costs between $18,000 to $23,000.

Of course I'm going to do more research and maybe test drive both of them. I've never owned a Dodge or a Nissan so I don't know how good those brands are. If anyone out there has either of these cars let me know what you think. I don't know when I'll be buying my new car but it will be soon and I'll keep everyone updated on my progress.

Unexpected Day Off

Okay so it wasn't really a day off but I did not plan to stay home from work today but if you read my previous blog you know that my Jeep took a turn for the worse last night. So this morning I called the repair station where it was dropped off last night. They said they were checking it out and would give me a call and give me the details. I was hoping to have it back by the after noon but around 10am they called and informed me that yes indeed my radiator needed to be replaced, and that it would cost me around $500. And like most repair shops they went into other items that they found wrong with the vehicle and for the most part I declined the work but know I'll have to get it done in the near future. But I did get my oiled changed and replaced the brake pads and rotors for both front tires.

So I was told it should be ready in a few hours... well a few hours passed and I heard nothing so finally at 3pm I called and asked if my jeep was ready and was informed that they finished the work and took it for a test drive and one of the front rotors locked up and was defective so they had to run out and get another one and would call me when it was ready. Finally at 5:45pm I called them as I knew they closed at 6 and they informed me that my jeep was ready. Luckily this place is open 24 hours, well the repair place isn't but since it's part of a gas station the cashier is always open. So I opted not to head down in the middle of traffic and wait until later in the evening when traffic wouldn't be as bad. So around 8:30pm Harry drove me over to West LA and I picked up my Jeep and finally got home around 10:30pm

This is the time that I wish I knew someone mechanically inclined. Parts for this job was about $415 and labor was even more $462 for a grand total of $877. Luckily I have the money to pay for this.. but man that's a lot of money for a car that I hope to not have in the near future... but I need a car and this is what I have at the moment.

While working from home I did get some yard work done, but it was way to hot to get any good amount done. I also worked on the next episode of MASH 4077 Podcast but again didn't get much done.

PS.. it's my Brother's Birthday today... HAPPY BIRTHDAY MICHAEL!!!!!

Bad Night

So coming off of a pretty stressful day at work I started my trek home. About thirty minutes into the drive and right before I got on the freeway I stopped at a red light and noticed a little white smoke coming from under the hood of my jeep. I looked at my temperature gauge and it was a little past the center but nothing horrible so I drove for another minute when smoke started bellowing out and I knew that something was really wrong so I manage to pull over and into a residential area. As I opened the hood of my jeep, steam came shooting out, about 2 feet high, from a three inch crack right on top of my radiator.

I called AAA, they sent a tow truck and took me to a local gas station / repair shop but of course they are closed by this time but they had an overnight drop off window. So I called Harry to come pick me up and 3 1/2 hours later I finally get home. So now I have to call this place tomorrow morning and find out how much it's going to cost me to get my radiator fixed/replaced. Guess I shouldn't be surprised this is how my night would end...  as it was a pretty crappy day all around.

An Unexpected Gift

Tonight when I got home I saw that I had received a rather large box. Now I was aware that my buddy Bryan had sent me something as he previously asked if he could get a list of things I have related to Harry Potter. Of course there is no way I could make a list like that as there is just to much stuff. And then he asked if I had gotten any Harry Potter stuff from the Nobel Collection. I told him only the two items that he got me for Christmas last year. So I put two and two together and figured it was something from the Noble Collection but that didn't prepare me for the AWESOMENESS that was the gift. I opened the package and my jaw dropped. I pulled out this beautifully crafted and very heavy statue (for a better word) of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. I was expecting something Harry Potter but nothing like this. It's proudly sitting on my couch table in the living room surrounded by my Harry Potter mini busts and it looks great.

Thanks Bryan for being such a great friend and for sending this to me just because... it's a very special gift and one that I will always treasure.

Update on my Geeky Life

Where to start.. we are only two days into May but this looks to be one of the most hectic and busiest months of the year. Work (MTV) is ramping up, we will have our very first episode of Chelsea Settles go into online and 2 more episodes will follow quickly after. My job is pretty crazy to begin with but when shows go into online it quadruples in stress and busyness. The next three months is going to be very hellish!!!

Also The Guild is going to start shooting its second half if Season Five, this weekend, which I hope to be on set for as much as I can. Luckily I don't have to edited the companioncasts until summer time but I still have two fairly successful podcasts; Knights of the Guild and MASH 4077 Podcast that both have episodes due to be released on May 15th & May 29th/June 1st, and I haven't even started to edit those.

I have put my third podcast, Epic Geek Out, my Internet Radio Station and Podcast Hub Project on hold.. at least until I can focus on them better.

People think I'm crazy because I joined a Los Angeles community Quidditch team. I know I'm extremely busy but I have three reasons for joining. 1, I joined because I'm a huge Harry Potter fan. 2, I joined because I think it will be super fun to actually play Quidditch and 3, I joined because I hope to get a good workout and in turn lose some weight.

I've been working out in the yard, we have to clear brush before May 1st (yeah it's pass due).  Harry been doing a lot of weed pulling and I have been using the mega weed whacker to take down the large areas of brush. Not sure when I'll be able to get back to this but it needs to be done before the fire marshal fines us.

Harry is still making plans to move back to Austria, he's goal is to fly back sometime in August. Once he has left the house I will reassess my life. Don't know if I want to start date again, or take some time to be by myself and enjoy the single life. Don't really have any plans just will see where life takes me.

Luckily the TV season is coming to an end and I'll be able to catch up on all the missed TV that sitting in my DVR and I'm still hoping to squeeze in seeing friends and family here and there.

I'm planning a trip to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter in September. I thinking of going September 12th to the 16th. Been wanting to go since it opened and my current job will end towards the end of August and I have nothing booked for that.

I'm also in the very early stages of planning a trip to Europe next year. I have lots of  "online" friends who have offered places to stay all throughout Europe so I'm hoping to take a month and travel around Europe and visit friends and cool places.

And of course everything will depend on my Dad's cancer status. He sees the Doctor on Thursday where they will do tests and then he should get the results on May 10th. We should know if the cancer has returned and what his options will be. All we can do is hope for the best and that it's nothing serious and can be fixed with meds, but I have been trying to prepare myself for the worse. Not sure if my Dad has another fight in him if the cancer has returned. Think happy thoughts!!!

Not to end this blog on a sad note..  life is good, love doing the podcasts, I have wonderful real life and online friends, my job is stressful and there is a very long commute but it pays wells and I like the people I work with. And I'm just happy to have a job. I'm 40 and starting a new chapter in my life. Can't wait to see what the future holds.

My Top 5 "Gay" Themed Movies

A friend of mine asked me what some of my favorite "gay" themed movies might be. First of all I don't think of movies as being "gay" or "straight", but with that said there are movies who's main characters are gay and the stories revolve around a gay lifestyle... so I figured I'd blog and let everyone know my top 5 favorites.

Alot of "gay" themed movies are dramatic and depressing as they deal with coming out, or HIV/AIDS or bigotry and normally end on a somber note. I'm not saying that I don't like these types of movies but there is a time and place for movies like that. I look for funny, romantic comedies, which are hard to come by... at least the good ones.

So here is my list of favorite "gay" themed movies.

#5 - Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss - Billy, a struggling young gay photographer (who likes Polaroids), tired of being the "other man", falls in love with Gabriel, a waiter and aspiring musician who is probably straight but possibly gay or at least curious. Billy tries to get Gabriel to model for his latest project, a series of remakes of famous Hollywood screen kisses, featuring male couples, while also trying to win his affections.

This was a cute and fun movie staring Sean Hayes (before he was Jack on Will and Grace). The story is simple and the acting is good. It's light hearted with it's moment of drama and unlike most movies there is a happy ending.

#4 - Broken Hearts Club - A group of gay friends in West Hollywood lean on each other to work their way through gay life, not always with success. They gather around Jack's Broken Hearts restaurant and lounge, Jack acting as their father figure and the coach and head cheerleader behind the inept Broken Hearts softball team.

This was my very first "gay" themed movie that I had seen and I wasn't even out of the closet yet. So this movie hold a special place in my heart. It's a slice of life kind of story. It's the kind of life I always wanted with a group of friends that I have always wanted. It's funny, sad, mellow dramatic and all around great movie.

#3 - Touch of Pink - Alim is an Indo-Canadian man currently living in London, England, the move in order to get away from what he feels is his repressive life in Toronto under the watchful and critical eye of his widowed mother, Nuru. For Nuru, the perfect public Muslim persona is the most important thing in life. Back in London, Alim is free to live openly a gay man, of which his mother is not aware. He is in a loving relationship with his live-in British boyfriend, Giles. To navigate through his complicated life, Alim uses the spirit of Cary Grant as his confidante and advisor. Feeling like her life is missing a daughter-in-law, Nuru decides to reconnect with Alim in London. Not yet ready to tell his mother of either Giles or his homosexual orientation, Alim, with Giles' support, hides any aspect of this fact for Nuru's visit. But as Giles is tested one turn after another during Nuru's visit, both Alim and Nuru begin to understand what is truly important in their lives leading to true happiness.

LOVE this movie, it's tough not having it as #1 or #2. This is a very sweet and funny movie. I love the two main characters relationship, I like how they portray the struggle of coming out to family and of course I'm a sucker for a happy ending and this one has one of the best and funniest.

#2 - Guys and Balls (Manner wie wir) - This movie is in German with English subtitles. Ecki lives with his parents who own a bakery in Boldrup, a (fictitious) small German town near Dortmund. Football (Soccor), the German national pastime, is particularly popular in this heavily industrialized region and Ecki has been an avid and successful player since his childhood days. In a decisive game, he fails to keep a ball and is then evicted from the team, with his mistake being used to cover the real reason—the revelation that he is gay that comes about when he is observed by some of his teammates kissing another man on the mouth. Ecki is defiant and immediately sets out to form his own team and beat his ex-teammates at their game.

I've seen a lot of foreign "gay" themed movies and most are extremely depressing but when I heard about this one I actually seeked it out and found out it was playing at a local theater in Hollywood. I figured Harry would get a kick out of it since it's in his native language and there was just something so charming about the main character. I walked out of that theater with a huge smile on my face. I loved every minute of this movie. It's funny, sad, romantic, heart wrenching, heart warming and just so darn cute. This movie is so well done that you honestly don't need to read the sub-titles and still understand what is going on. The main character Ecki played by Maximilian Brückner is so charismatic and charming you can't get enough of him.

#1 - Big Eden - Big Eden is a tiny fictional town in northwestern Montana. Timber and Cowboy country. This is the story of Henry Hart, a successful New York Artist, who returns to the town of his childhood to care for the ailing grandfather who raised him. Back in Big Eden, Henry must come to terms with his relationship to Dean Stewart, his best friend from high School, as well as the object of his unrequited love. All these years Henry has been pining for a dream image of Dean from back then. This is also the story of Pike Dexter, the shy, unassuming Native American owner of the town's general store, who is as surprised as anyone to find himself falling in love with Henry. The people of Big Eden conspire and attempt to bring Henry and Pike together.

This is one of my all time favorite, not only "gay" themed but of all romantic dramady. This movie is just a great movie plain and simple, who's main character just happens to be gay. Maybe I love this movie because I would love to live in this beautiful, well adjusted, open minded town. Were love is love that's all that matters. The acting is superb, the story is great, there are sad moments, but always laugh out loud moments. We've all had unrequited love so you can easily identify with the main character. You experience the joy, the heard break and finally love that each character has for each other. This is truly and incredible movie.

Here are some honorable mentions:  Get Real (great coming of age story) - Love, Valour, Compassion (sweet, fun but also tragic) - Latter Days (a nice coming to terms story) - Jeffery (very socially minded flick, HIV?AIDS story) - Trick (simple but very cute movie) - Longtime Companion (slice of life, balled like a baby, extremely sad and heart breaking)  - Brokeback Mountain (Heart wrenching story).

My Sunday

Wish this was a relaxing day but it seems that it's not meant to be.. at least at this moment in my life. After getting 3 hours sleep and driving Harry's family to LAX I got home and was tired but not tired enough to go back to bed. I was never one for taking naps. So instead I got on the computer and released the seventh episode of my MASH Podcast and went to the various sites to promote it. I planned to do some more yard work but it was still early around 8am so instead I plopped in front of the TV and tried to watch some of the shows that we've recorded the past 3 weeks since Harry's family was in town. Harry went back to bed and since we watch a few of these shows together I had to be selective on what I watched. So in a sense I did get a few hours of relaxation.

But it didn't last long around 11am I dragged my body out of the house and started to some yard work. About thirty minutes in my mega weed whacker ran out of gas, so I had to stop and get in my jeep and head to the closest gas station, which is about 15 minutes away. While driving there I realized that my jeep was also out of gas and I was driving on fumes. I managed to get to the gas station right before my jeep died on me. So I filled up my Jeep and my gas can and headed back.

With a full tank my weed whacker was ready to go and I continued for another hour before taking a break. Unlike yesterday, the sun was hot but there was a strong breeze that cooled you down. Today was hotter then yesterday and there was a light breeze that did nothing. So for the next four hours I would go out for about an hour and then come back in for a 15 minute break, but by 5pm I gave up as exhaustion and heat stroke got the better of me.

On a bad note.. while cutting weeds several rocks flew at my face and scratched both lens' on my new glasses. But me being me I looked on the bright side and figured if I wasn't wearing the glasses the rocks may have injured my eyes. But none the less I'll have to get the glasses fixed which in turn will cost me another few hundred dollars :(

Harry and I watched the latest Doctor Who, episode 2 Day of the Moon and really enjoyed it. Don't have a clue what's going on but I kind of like that about Who. We also watched a few hours of Extreme Makeover Home Edition while eating dinner. Around 8 I got a tweet saying that Osama Bin Laden was dead. I turned on the news and found it was true. Harry and I discussed it for a minute and then went back to our TV (I'll post a separate blog about my thoughts on this issue). One downside to the news is that the major networks broke into our local programing so we lost an episode of Extreme Makeover but what really upset us was the fact that we lost an episode of Amazing Race. But there is a happy ending for us as the news coverage ended CBS pushed Amazing Race and aired it at 9pm instead so we got to watch it in it's entirety. It's the second to last episode and it was another good one.

Amazing Race ended at 10pm, and I watched the first 15 minutes of the local news before heading to bed where, as I always do, watch an episode of The Simpsons and this time it was a new one. So in the end it was an okay day.. got some yard work done, got some TV in, released a podcast and the death of a Bin Laden.

MASH 4077 Podcast Episode 7

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

Today we cover Episode #7 - Bananas, Cracker and Nuts

Directed by Bruce Bilson
Written by Burt Styler
Production code J311
Original air date November 5th, 1972

Set during the Korean War in the 1950’s

After an unusually long stretch in the OR, Hawkeye and Trapper argue, and decide that they need some R&R. Unfortunately, Henry is leaving for a few days, leaving Frank in charge. Hawkeye decides to pretend to be insane to try to get a few days off despite Frank's prejudice. He rejects a proposition from an attractive nurse, eats a plate of ostensibly human liver in full surgical garb, and reacts violently when Frank touches the plate. Trapper tells Frank that Hawkeye is losing it, and that he (Trapper) should take him to Tokyo for R&R. Uncertain about whether they are serious or if it is an elaborate act, Margaret calls in a psychiatrist friend, Capt. Philip Sherman, to assess Hawkeye's emotional state. After Hawkeye tells Sherman that he is in love with Frank, Sherman declares him to be insane. When Henry learns of Sherman's finding, he argues that Hawkeye was merely trying to get R&R, but Sherman insists that Hawkeye needs to be committed to a hospital in Tokyo.

Hawkeye, upon hearing this, confesses he simply wanted a holiday from the war, but Sherman, who has designs on Margaret, insists that he be sent for treatment. Hawkeye concocts with Radar an elaborate plan to make it appear that Sherman is trying to molest Margaret in her sleep. Their plan succeeds, Sherman is sent from the unit, and Hawkeye is allowed to stay

Hope you enjoy it,

Kenny, Meds, Al & Harry

Find Us on the Web:
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Email Us - MASH4077Podcast@Gmail.com

Early Rise

Today I had to get up at 4:30am. That's super early but what makes it worse is I didn't get to bed until 12:30am and actually fell asleep around 1:30am. So on 3 hours sleep after a long day of yard work and party/podcasting I was exhausted. But we had to get Harry's family back to LAX for their 7:50am flight home to Austria. It's always surprising what you body can do. With only 3 hours of sleep I managed to get up and feel pretty okay. We had to do two vehicles so we packed up my jeep with luggage and Harry's brother-in-law Bernd joined me and everyone else went with Harry in his truck. As expected there was very little traffic at 5am heading to LAX. But because we live so far out it still took us about 1 hour 20 minutes to get there. We dropped them off, said our goodbyes and headed back home. Harry opted to take a nap but I was awake and have a hard time taking naps so I stayed awake and watched some tv. Later I'm going to head outside for more exciting yard work.

It was nice having Harry's family with us for three weeks but it's always VERY nice to have our house back to ourselves. Now to just get everything back in order.