Homemade Christmas Gifts

Here's a hint at one of them :)

I love making Homemade Christmas gifts for me friends, I have two very cool "go to" gifts that I make every year. I normally go back and forth from year to year on which one I make. If you are one of my older friends you probably have one of these gifts. Well since I'm out of work and funds are low I decided to make both gifts this year. Both take a lot of work and honestly I'm not that crafty so don't ask me how I ever came up with the ideas, but I did. I'm not going to go into great detail about the gifts as many of my friends who read my blog will be getting one or both :) One is very whimsical and fun and the other is very sweet and thoughtful. I hope my friends like them.. as they are made with love and appreciation.

Christmas Shopping

So I was feeling a bit better today and thought I would venture out of the house. First stop was Chili's for some lunch. As I was pulling into Target I felt a wave of nausea coming over me. I pushed it away as I needed to get some shopping done but while in Target I started to feel dizzy and knew that I needed to get home quick. I did manage to buy one gift for my sister-in-law so the trip wasn't a total waste but man just when I think I'm feeling better.. WHAM!!!

Skyping with a Friend

Tonight my buddy Russ and I decided to have a voice chat on Skype. Russ and I have been friends for almost a year and we are both podcasters and listen to each others podcast. We text chat via skype, twitter and facebook but never voice chat. Well two plus hours later we finally had to say good night as it was past 3am his time (he lives in England). I adore Russ and never thought I would like him even more.. but after chatting about everything for two hours I like him even more. I got to know him a little better and I hope he got to know me a bit better. We decided that were going to try and make it a somewhat weekly thing as we both enjoyed ones company so much. Can't wait to actual hang out with him while I'm visiting England next year.

Knights of the Guild Ep 37

Knights of the Guild Episode 37

Download from itunes - http://bit.ly/KotGCast or listen, get direct download at http://bit.ly/2CrYxk

Today’s show features:

    * Knights of the Guild opening theme composed by Brian Arnold with Tweex Music  http://tweexmusic.com
    * What the Cast is Up too
    * "From the Archives" Interview with Robin Thorsen from Season 2
    * Interview with Season 5 lead Make Up artist Kim

Thank you again for all your support, I do this podcast because I am a fan myself and love taking other fans behind the scenes of this great webseries.

~Kenny~

© Geekyfanboy Productions

Christmas Decorations

Though I'm not feeling 100% I worked on finishing putting up my Christmas decorations. I normally do outside lights but because I'm so secluded out here it's really not worth all the effort to get the lights up so instead I put a few lights up inside the house. I took a 360 picture that you can see HERE I think they turned out pretty nice. Now to finish up my Christmas shopping so I can just relax and enjoy the season.

MASH 4077 Podcast Episode 21

Download from itunes http://tinyurl.com/MASH4077itunes or listen/direct download http://MASH4077Podcast.com

Show Notes

Kenny Mittleider from Knights of the Guild, Alien Nation: The Newcomers Podcast & Confessions of a Fanboy Podcast, Simon Meddings from Waffle On Podcast, & Al Kessel from Tales from the Mouse House, Fast Forward & Just Because Podcast discuss one of the most successful and longest running television series in history.. M*A*S*H

Today we cover Season 1, Episode #21 - Sticky Wicket
Directed by Don Weis
Written by Richard Baer
Production code J321
Original air date March 4, 1973

Set during the Korean War in the 1950’s

Plot Summary: The episode opens in a poker game. When it's interrupted by surgery, Hawkeye and Margaret operate on a patient and the former insults Frank. However, Hawkeye's patient fails to improve after surgery. Hawkeye becomes overly concerned with the case, to the point of attacking Frank over comments at lunch, falling asleep in Post-Op, snapping at Trapper for playing poker too loudly, and moving out of the Swamp to the supply tent. While Hawkeye retreats to the Supply Tent to reflect on the case, he is interrupted by his date (whom he turns away), Trapper (whom he turns away as well), two other soldiers, and Henry. Henry implies that Hawkeye is concerned more about his ego than about his patient. Hawkeye returns with a glib remark about Henry's intelligence, which ultimately insults Henry and allows Hawkeye some peace and quiet. While pondering the case outside the Supply Tent, Hawkeye encounters Margaret and she theorizes that they made a mistake in the surgery, eliciting extreme doubt from Hawkeye, who in turn insults her. During the night, Hawkeye has an epiphany and reopens the patient to find a small piece of shrapnel damage behind the sigmoid colon, at which point Frank states, "Anybody could have missed that."Hawkeye responds with a sincere "Thanks, Frank."

Hope you enjoy it,
Kenny, Meds & Al

Hugo - Movie Review

Tonight I went to a screening of Martin Scorsese HUGO at the Paramount Studios. First of all this is where I saw Tin Tin a few weeks ago and it by far the nicest "screening" room I've ever been to and I've been to quite a few. Like Tin Tin this was also presented in 3D. I really didn't know much about this movie other then it was directed by Martin Scorsese and it was about a boy and there was some sort of robot involved but that was about it. 

Here's a short synopsis: Set in 1930s Paris, an orphan who lives in the walls of a train station is wrapped up in a mystery involving his late father and an automaton.

First let me say that this movie is visual stunning, the 3D like with Tin Tin wasn't gimmicky. It was beautifully done. The acting was superb, especially the lead boy who carries the entire movie. The writing and story was very sweet and kind of whimsical. The pacing is slow, not in a negative, omg when are they going to get thing rolling kind of way, but the movie is built that way. It's not a fast pace, action packed film. It moves at it's own pace, which is slow. There is drama, comedy and whimsy. It's a good family movie, though young kids might have a hard time sitting still. It's not a movie I could watch over and over again but defiantly once in awhile and it's worth watching at least once.

I would give Hugo a 7 out of 10.

Being Sick, Shopping and Movies

Today I woke up not feeling so hot. Sore throat, stuff nose, a little bit of a cough and just over all blah.. Not sure if I'm getting sick or it's my allergies acting up because of all the wind. Regardless of what it is I had to do some Christmas shopping today. My buddy Aaron is hanging with me for the day so we got up, ate some breakfast and headed out for shopping. I wanted to drive to the Burbank area as there is a store out there that I wanted to check out. So we hit Target, then Michael's and then had some lunch at Panda Express before heading to the mall to go to the store that was the reason I came down to Burbank in the first place and the store is no longer there :( So I pretty much drove down here for nothing as I could have gone to Target and Michael's up near my place.  Well I wasn't feeling so hot so we called it a day for shopping and headed home.

I stopped by the mail box and saw that I got 2 more screeners, blu ray versions of Rango and Super 8 and then Fedex dropped off The Ides of March.

Aaron and I were going to a screening of Hugo tonight but had a few hours to kill so we opted to watch Rango. If you never heard of Rango it stars Johnny Depp as Rango, who is a sheltered chameleon living as an ordinary family pet, while facing a major identity crisis. After all, how high can you aim when your whole purpose in life is to blend in? When Rango accidentally winds up in the gritty, gun-slinging town of Dirt - a lawless outpost populated by the desert's most wily and whimsical creatures - the less-than-courageous lizard suddenly finds he stands out. Welcomed as the last hope the town has been waiting for, new Sheriff Rango is forced to play his new role to the hilt. 

I have to say that it was an enjoyable movie.. not my favorite animated film but it was entertaining. The voices were cool, couldn't even tell that was Johnny Depp. I enjoyed the animation and it had an overall good story. A few of the characters were endearing but many of them I really didn't care for. I'm contributing that to why I though it was just okay. Maybe there were to many characters and I couldn't keep track of them all. I'm glad I saw it but glad I didn't buy it.

When Rango was over we headed out to Paramount for the screening of Hugo, which I will blog a review next.

Christmas is Coming

Today I finally got around to cleaning up my house after the three day Thanksgiving / Lord of the Rings Movie Marathon. Tired to do some of it yesterday but really was not very motivated as I think I was still recovering from the parties. But I wanted to start to decorate my house and put up my Christmas Tree, as I normally do it the day after Thanksgiving.

So I did the million dishes, swept and cleaned the floors and did various other little things to get my house back in order. Once that was done I pulled out all my Christmas plastic bins and carried my six foot Christmas Tree into the house.

I've always had "live" trees for as long as I remember and when I moved out onto my own I continued to buy "live" trees.. but last year I purchased a "fake" tree as I was getting tired of the hassle of caring of a "live" tree and watching die slowly and the mess it left behind. Also "fake" trees have come a long way and look 100% real. And of course me being me I didn't want to take the tree apart after last Christmas so Harry and I just carried the entire thing to the garage where's it's been since. So for one person to carry this assembled tree was a challenge. But I did it and it looks fantastic.  I did the garland around the fireplace before my buddy Aaron come over around 11pm. He and I are going shopping tomorrow and to a screening of Hugh. So I called it a night on decoration.. still have a few thing to put up. I love Christmas time and this will be the first time in eight years that I'll be spending Christmas alone. And before you say anything yes I have wonderful friends and family and I will not be "alone" but I meant single which will be a change from previous years.

When I am finished with the decorations I'll post pixs up on Facebook and I'm sure I'll blog about it.

Marriage Equality For All

My buddy Ken facebooked me this video a few days ago and I haven't been able to stop watching it. It uses no words but has a powerful message and makes me cry every time I watch. I think this is every persons dream (gay and straight).. at least it's mine. Maybe one day it will become a reality.

Thanksgiving / Lord of the Rings Movie Marathon Day 3

Okay I think it's finally starting to catch up with me. I got up around 8ish and everyone was up already. Had a bit of a head ache so I took so ibuprofen. Ashphord asked if I minded if she made french toast for breakfast and of course I said no go for it. So that's what she did. The others helped me re-organize my house and put back everything into it's place. Also I found all but one of those missing quarters from the disaster game from last night.

We all had some yummy french toast for breakfast and then headed outside to play extreme bocce ball with the new set that Chris had purchased for me yesterday. After boccie ball we decided that we would go for a hike at Vasquez Rock (also becoming a movie marathon tradition). Both Ashphord and Anthony had never been to Vasquez Rocks so it's always exciting to take new people to one of the most beautiful places around. Luis hiked with us for about a half hour before having to head back home so we said our goodbyes and Me, Chris, Jes, Aaron, Ashphord and Anthony continued deeper into the park. Chris or as we were calling him Smegal was guiding us (though he had never been to this section before either). Soon we were far from the car and had a huge rock/mountain blocking us from getting back. So we trekked on and on as our water supply depleted. Chris had a plan and we just had to follow. But as it was pointed out.. look what happen to Sam and Frodo when they followed Smegal. But in the end the wonderful Chris found a way down the mountain side and back to our car. We hiked for something like 2 1/2 hours. It was crazy fun and I got to see parts of this park that I had never seen before.

After the hike I wanted to thank them all for staying all three days and making it a fantastic weekend so I treated everyone to lunch at Islands restaurant.

Once we were back from Islands we had to say our goodbyes to Jes and Chris, who both had long drives back up north.. Chris is 3 hours, Jes has 7 hours. Anthony and Ashphord took naps and Aaron and I just kicked back and watched some Simpsons. Ashphord joined us for a bit then Aaron had to head back south to San Diego area. Anthony finally woke up and when he first go here he was wearing his Ravenclaw robes so I told him we had to get a picture of us dueling.. me in my Gryffindor robes and he in his Ravenclaw and that is what we did. Ashphord took about ten pictures of us dueling... yep I'm a big ol' geek. Going to enhance the photos and will be posting them soon. After that we said our goodbyes and the 3 days Thanksgiving / Lord of the Rings marathon has come to an end.

It's always sad when the last person leaves, as I am all alone again but man what a blast these past three days have been. Thanks to all of those to joined me - Scott, Leslie, Jes, Nicki, Anthony, Ashphord, Leo, Jennifer and Matthew. And I really want to thank Luis, Chris, Jen, Anne and Aaron who have joined me for all three of my movie marathons so far. You guys are the core group of this movie marathon posse and I don't even have the words to tell you how much I appreciate, love and adore each and everyone of you.

You can check out more pictures HERE