Breakfast, Yard Work & Podcasts... Oh My!!

Today is my first weekend off since I started working again. I have a ton of things to do. First up was breakfast with my friend Tanya. She and I met a few years ago at San Diego Comic Con and really hit it off. Since she lived down in San Diego and worked for NASA I didn't get to see her much but she is moving to Canada to start schooling so I wanted to make sure I got to see her one last time. She also was downsizing for her move and had a bunch of Star Trek stuff that she was getting rid of and asked me if I wanted it (she wanted to give it to a good home).

We meet up for breakfast down in Pasadena (she was working at JPL) and we updated each other on our lives. She then gave me a box and bag full of cool Star Trek stuff. The stuff will fit in nicely with my collection.

After breakfast I came home, watched a bit a TV but really tried to motivate myself to get outside and so some much needed yard work. I did manage to get out there for an hour and pull weeds on the side of my driveway. But it was hot and it's tough pulling weeds with one good hand (my left still sore from the dislocated finger).

I came in and forced myself to start editing my next MASH Podcast. It's due next weekend and I knew that this would be the only time I had to get it done. I struggled on and off all day long to get it done, but by midnight it was finished and ready to be uploaded.

Between editing my podcast I watched TV, cleaned around the house and other little things. I felt like I had so much to do but really only got a little done.. guess there is always tomorrow.

First Week of Work

Well I finished my first week at my new job. It's just getting started so it's not super busy at the moment. I spent most of my days working on a post schedule and just trying to get the lay of the land. What got to me more was the hours. I have been tired all week, though I'm getting 7 to 8 hours of sleep a night. And that's pretty much all I'm doing. I get up at 7am, leave my house around 8ish and get to work a bit before 10am. I work until 7pm and get home a bit after 8. I have dinner and by that time I'm tired and hit the bedroom around 10ish, watch an episode of The Simpsons (which I do every night) and normally fall asleep before the episode is done. I did hang out with my buddy Sebastian on Tuesday for a few hours after work and with Robert on Thursday, but man I'm tired when I get home.

Being out of work for nine months has really taken it's toll on me. I knew it would take me a while to get back into the swing of things but with all my extra circular activities (podcasts) I don't know where I'm going to find time to get everything done. I'm sure I'll get into a routine but as of this moment I don't see that happening anytime soon.

Dinner with Friends

After work today I headed over to my friends Sebastian and Amanda place. I had some good news for Sebastian and I wanted to deliver it to him in person. After Sebastian's six months of no work, I was able to offer him a job as my post PA, it will be his very first "industry" job, which is the main reason why he moved down here to begin with.

Of course he accepted and we went out to dinner to celebrate at Black Angus.

I love when I'm able to give opportunities to up and coming entertainment people and it's even better when they are a friend. Gonna have lots of fun working side by side with a friend.  It was a nice way to end my work week.

Hiding Your Geekiness

Recently I've had some conversations with friends and was surprised to hear that many of them feel the need to hide their geekiness or not expose how geeky they truly are. This really surprised me, as I have never really been one to hide my geekiness. In fact I think I'm the complete opposite, I wear my geekiness like a badge of honor. I mean if someone doesn't like you because you're a geek or like certain things then that person is not worthy of your friendship.

An example, I meet someone at my new job who is an uber geek, especially for Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter. Needless to say that we hit if off and talked geek for over an hour straight. When we finished he said.. "man we are nerds!!", kind of in a derogatory way. I asked him if our conversation made him uncomfortable and he said he's never had a conversation like that before. I told him I have conversations like that with my friends everyday and he was surprised.

Another example, I have a friend who was married for many years, now divorced. But we got to talking recently and he mentioned how geeky he truly is now. When he was married, though still a geek, he didn't explore all the avenues of being a geek. He hide part of himself, or maybe he didn't know how strong that geeky part was, regardless he wasn't allowing himself to be his true geeky self.

So my question to all my blog readers.. do you hide your geekiness, if so.. why?

Buffy and Bros

Today after work I headed over to Robert's place to continue our Buffy viewing. This is a rewatch for me but the first time for Robert. Got to his place around 7:30 followed shortly by pizza and wings.

Up first was season 1, episode 4 "Teacher's Pet", Buffy's biology teacher is killed by a giant praying mantis that assumes the form of a beautiful substitute teacher.

Next up was season 1, episode 5 "Never Kill A Boyfriend On The First Date", While Buffy awaits the arrival of a warrior vampire, she dates a boy who is attracted to her exciting lifestyle.

And our final episode of the night was season 1, episode 6 "The Pack", Xander and several other students are possessed by the spirit of a demonic breed of hyenas that wreak havoc at the high school.

Out of those three my favorite was "Never Kill A Boyfriend On The First Date" I enjoyed Buffy trying to be a "normal" teenage girl and at the end realizes that she isn't.

Had a great time hanging with Robert and now that I work over on that end of town will be doing this more ofter... maybe we can get through Buffy faster then 11 months.

Moving Offices

Today I got word that I will be changing offices.. not only offices but locations. For reasons I can't reveal, post for this show will now be happening at a new location. It adds an additional 15/20 minutes to my commute and I no longer have an office, which is a bummer. But it does take me within a mile of one of my besties work place, which means will get to do lots of lunches together.

In the end it's best for the show and that's the important part. Not sure when I'll be going over but I suspect by the end of the week.. I'll keep you all updated.

Update!!

Well two things I wanted to update you guys on.. first of all my finger is still sore, my knuckle swelling is starting to go down. I keep it wrapped the majority of the time, but occasionally I'll take it out and move it round. It's funny but I've had issues with that same finger when I was a kid and dislocated all eight of my fingers at once (long and painful story). Anyways even when this fully heals there is going to be damage to this hand, it's not going to be horrible (disfigured) but some mobility will be loss.

Second thing I wanted to update you guys on is my new gig. But honestly there isn't much to update  you on. I've been working on the post schedule the past few days. I was suppose to be setting up edit bays and offices but they are currently occupied by another company, so that will have to wait. Start up time for a show is always slow, but this one seems to be a little slower then normal.. oh well it's a job and I'm thankful for that.

Once again traffic wasn't that bad, it's taking me about an hour and 15 to get here and to get home. Now I know that sounds like alot to some of you.. but my normal commute from my place to Santa Monica is just under two hours.. so yay!!

Hanging with my Bud

Today my buddy Sebastian asked if I wanted to stop by his place on my way home from work and hang out. I was tired and he doesn't live exactly on my way home but he needed some company and to be honest I think I needed company as well. So after work I headed over to his place. Once again the traffic wasn't that bad.. took maybe 45 minutes to get to Burbank. Got to his place and we walked to Del Taco so I could get some dinner. Went back to his place and I watched a short film that he had written, produced and directed. It still needed a few audio tweaks but it was very well done. After that we just talk and laughed for the next few hours. It was great just getting to relax and hang with a friend. I got home around 11pm and fell asleep just before midnight.

Do You Act Your Age??

You hear it all the time "Why don't you act your age", and it got me thinking, have I ever acted my age? The answer would have to be no. I was your typical kid, up to age 10 or so and then something changed. Both of my parents worked so I had to take care of my younger brother so in a sense I became a parent. I've always been mature for my age, wise beyond his years they use to say or you're such an old soul. I've always been responsible and never partied or did anything illegal when I was younger. At age 16 I was ready to get married and settle down with a family, of course my life took a different turn and maybe that is why I never really acted like a kid. Being in the closet for so many years and not really being the person I was born to be kept me reserved and shy. I struggled for so many years with my sexuality that when I finally came out at 27 I still had that reserved older then I was attitude. A lot of gay men upon coming out go crazy, I did not. I was still in the mindset of finding that one person and settling down for the rest of my life with them. Of course that never happened and now that I'm 41 I'm not sure if it ever will.

But I have noticed in the past year about the time I turned 40 I've been having a lot more fun, drinking/partying more and trying to be a bit more social. Might have to do with the friends I hang out with now, who are all in the mid 20's to early 30's. They say you are only as old as you feel and there are days that I feel 80 but most of the time I feel like I'm in my 20's

And of course being geek has kept me young at heart. From my collecting of action figures to loving scifi and fantasy TV and movies, It shaped who I am and who I want to be. I will always be a geek until the day I die and I'm extremely happy with that thought.

In the end AGE is just a number, what is more important is how you lived your life. And right now life is pretty good.

First Day on The Job

Got up early around 6am, didn't need to be up until 7:30am but I couldn't sleep. I'm not sure if it was nerves or excitement for my new job. If you haven't been following my work woes, I've been out of work going on nine months. I interviewed for a job about a month ago and thought I nailed it but there was someone who had a more impressive resume so they went with him. Flash forward four days ago and I get a call from this same employer asking me if I had gotten a job yet because the person they hired didn't work out. I couldn't believe my luck, I said I was free and they made me an "offer". I accepted it and now have a job for the next ten weeks.

Traffic wasn't that bad and by not that bad it took me an hour and a half to get here this morning. I've had commute up to 2 and a half hours when traffic is really bad.. so this wasn't horrible.

I first had to go to the main office to meet with the EP's, fill out my start paperwork and such before heading over to where they will be doing post (about a mile or so away for their office). When looking at the post edit schedule I noticed that this gig ran until the end of October, much longer then 10 weeks.. if fact it's almost doubled with 19 weeks. Needless to say that this makes me extremely happy.

After spending the morning over there I headed to Lot 5 where we will be doing post. The facility is really nice, got a tour of the place and they showed me where my offices and edit bays will be, currently occupied by Nickelodeon. They are moving out at the end of this week, but that's cool since I'm the only person in post this week. So I have a temp office, which may wind up being my actual office.. but I'm hoping for a windowed room.

This place has a really nice "break" room. besides the soda and snacks they have a very nice lounge area with a big screen TV as well as a pool table and stand up Arcade game with over 120 old school games.

The rest of the day I read through documents for the network show specs, got my new macbook laptop an set that up. Had a meeting with my Post Producer and facilities manager. Just kind of got a feel for whats coming.

Got off a little pass 7pm and made my way home, again I have been in traffic that has taken me a few hours to get home but like this morning, I got home in an hour and ten minutes. There wasn't a single break light the entire time.. yes there were tons of cars but everything was moving.

This show will have some challenges, as most shows do. We're not doing online here so that's one thing I don't have to worry about, which is nice. Right now things are moving fast but start up of a new project is always a struggle but once things are flowing I think it should be a pretty fun gig.

The Day After

Well today is my last day before I start my new job and I had tons of things I wanted to do. Well now that I have a bad finger it prevents me from doing alot of those things and the stuff I can do it makes me move alot slower. The side of my hand has swollen up and I plan to go out and get some proper wrap for my finger. There isn't much pain as long as I don't try and move to much. It's gonna take time for it to heal properly.

It's Father's Day, I did wish my Dad a Happy Father's Day yesterday when I was hanging out with him at Kenobi's birthday party. I told him the next time I'm down I'll take him out to lunch for Father's Day.

First thing I did was shave off my beard. I had planned to keep it around until the middle of July when I knew I would have to shave it off SDCC as I was cosplaying as a Hobbit and Hobbits don't have beards. But I decided to get rid of it early because of this new job. The beard wasn't growing in like I had hopped and was really crazy and wild looking.. so it had to go.

It's funny seeing me clean shaven, I have been this way since last comic con and after the con it quickly grew back. I like the beard to several reasons.. it hides my second chin :) but more importantly I'm lazy and it's so much easier to get up in the morning and not shave.

I did a few things around the house, ran some errands and caught up on some TV (Finally caught up on Lost Girl) soooooo gooood.

I recorded and edited a new episode of Knights of the Guild and got that posted and in the evening I had a skype call with Charles and recorded episode 0 of my new podcast The Geek Roundtable, this episode is just an introduction of the hosts and what we hope to accomplish with this podcast. It will be out soon.

I didn't get everything I wanted to get done but still a very productive day.. going to bed early as I need to get up early in order to get to work at 10. I'm not really that nervous about the new job, we see how I feel tomorrow.

Knights of the Guild Ep 41

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

 

Episode #41 features part two of my interview with Costume Designer / Wardrobe,  Kristen Ingram. We talk all about Season Five

 

Enjoy,

~Kenny~

 

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