Burgers, Bats and Budgets

Today I got up a bit later due to the fact that I didn't get to sleep until 3am. I wasn't feeling so hot, the past few days I've woken up with a sore throat but today my stomach was hurting as well. I wound up cancelling my plans for Saturday evening with my buddy Sebastian and also my visit with family tomorrow. But today I was having lunch with my buddy Thomas (from Ireland) and watching Dark Knight Rises, I probably would have cancelled that but the tickets were already purchased and this Thomas' second to last day and I'm lucky enough to see him once or twice a year.

Before lunch and a movie with Thomas,  I had hoped to get some podcasting done, but yeah that didn't happen. I did manage to clean my entire house which made me so happy. I hate having a dirty house and I haven't been able to do any cleaning or anything since before comic con. I even had all my comic con stuff still all over the place. But I wasn't suppose to meet up with Thomas until 1pm which meant I had to leave my place by noon. That gave me a good two hours to clean and clean I did.

As it always happen my stomach started to hurt 15 minutes before I had to leave. So I had to push back our meet up time to 1:30pm. I got to Sherman Oaks Galleria around 1:30 and meet up with Thomas. We decided to have Fuddruckers this time. Last Wednesday we did P.F. Chang's before Spiderman. Thought my stomach issues were done but I was wrong. After eating lunch I started to feel stomach pains again and the bathroom at Fuddruckers was broken so we quickly went to the theater and I went directly to their facilities. I figured I'd be in there for a while so I told Thomas to go in and get our seats and I'll meet him inside,  hopefully before the movie started. I did manage to get to my seat just as the previews started. Was very excited as I got to see the new Man of Steel preview and it looks pretty awesome.

3 hours later the movie ended and we made our way back to the parking structure. We were saying goodbye when I suggested that we go hiking at Vasquez Rocks tomorrow morning before he makes his way south to the airport. Even though I wasn't feeling well I couldn't say goodbye.. just yet.

Here is my Dark Knight Rises review... As I've said in previous blog posts I'm not a huge fan of Batman or this reboot.. well I should amend that. After seeing The Dark Knight and rewatching Batman Begins I have to say I really enjoyed Dark Knight Rises. It was very entertaining, full of action, had a great story that connected it to first movie. I liked the SFX. I loved the batcycle especially when it turned and the wheels would roll. Catwoman was fantastic and I liked "Robin". I think it was a great ending for this trilogy. And I can now say without a doubt that I really enjoyed all three of these movies and look forward to having a marathon one day. I give this movie a B and the over all trilogy a B+

After the movie I came home and made some dinner (which again hurt my stomach). I finished cleaning up the house but the thing I really wanted to do was watch the series finale of one of my favorite TV shows Eureka.

Eureka is one of those series that is just plain good. I've been there since the very first episode and enjoyed the ride. I was sad to hear when Syfy cancelled it especially since it was looking like it was going to be renewed for a sixth season. Syfy was kind enough to actually give them one more episode to do a final goodbye episode. This is what I watched tonight and I loved every minute of it. They brought back all the "main" characters from seasons past. It was a nice way to end the series and to thank all their loyal viewers. I'm sad to see it go but so happy with got 5 seasons of this FANTASTIC series.

One other thing I did tonight..  I worked on Chris and my secret project. I created a budget for this project. It's tough not being able to tell you guys what this is but we want to make sure it's going to really happen before we announce anything.. so stay tuned.

I didn't get everything I wanted to do done but I still think I had a productive Saturday. And for the first time in two weeks I'm going to bed at a decent time.

Dinner with William

Tonight after work I got to hang out with my buddy Will.  It's been a while since he and I just hung out. I got to his place quicker then expected. Will was still at work so I asked if he wanted me to go get the pizza and meet him back at his place by the time he gets home. Well it would have been quicker if I just left my car in front of his place and walked to the pizza place. But no I didn't do that..  instead I drove over to the pizza place and drove around for about 20 minutes trying to find a parking space. What made it worse were the other drivers. This entire experience really soured my night... I was not a happy camper.

I did mange to find a parking space and get the pizza. By this time Will was home and waiting for me. Got to his place and luckily there was a free parking space under his apartment, so I didn't have to go through that same ordeal all over again. Got up stairs and was greeted by Will's smiling face, his greeting made the last half hour just disappeared. It always good to see him.

We were getting together to not only see each other but to celebrate Will's birthday, which was on Monday, since I couldn't make it to his party/dinner. Went inside with the pizza and was introduced to his new roommate (who's name I can't recall). I knew Will's old roommate was leaving but didn't realize he had gotten a new one and come to find out that it's been a few months. So his roommate joined us for dinner, luckily I had gotten a large pizza and some wings.

Will suggested that we watch Batman Begins and The Dark Knight since he just got both of them on blu-ray. I haven't seen Batman Begins since it was in theaters because I wasn't a big fan of it. And because I wasn't a big fan I didn't see The Dark Knight until a few months back. Anyways we popped in Batman and it was so much better then I remembered. I really enjoyed it and it got me pumped for The Dark Knight Rises.

It was late and I didn't want to do the other movie. I had planned to leave but then Will and I started talking and the next thing I knew it was 2am.  Luckily it was a Friday so I didn't have to work the next morning. So getting to bed around 3am wasn't so bad and I had a great time catching up with Will.

Trying to Recoup

The past two weeks I haven't gotten more then four to five hours of sleep. I might have been able to handle this when I was younger but man it's tough as you get older. I mean I love comic con and then seeing friends after work but I don't think I can take it much longer. I'm actually starting to get sick. They say you need less and less sleep as you get older but I think that's a myth. I feel the older I get the more sleep I need to feel really rested. Oh well guess you only live once.. gotta have fun while you can.

Spending Time with the Irishman

After work today I headed to Sherman Oaks Galleria to have dinner and watch a movie with my buddy from Ireland Thomas. He was visiting for San Diego Comic Con and was doing another week in Los Angeles. I wanted to spend as much time with him since we don't get to see each other very often.

Got to the galleria and he was waiting for me near the Starbucks. We opted to have dinner at P.F. Chang's since he's never eaten there before. We were both hungry and I have to say this is the first time that I have ever finished all my food from this place. It was some yummy stuff. During dinner I got the load down of the happenings in Ireland.

We were going to see The Amazing Spiderman and the great thing about going to the Arclight of Sherman Oaks is the seating is assigned. So we didn't have to wait in line. This is a quick story about getting these tickets yesterday. I purchased them online but failed to change the date so I got them for that night. I quickly called the theater and after the phone rang about 50 times someone answered and quickly changed my tickets from yesterday to today.

Anyways I enjoyed the previous incarnation of Spiderman on the big screen and I felt it was way too soon for a reboot but was looking forward to this movie. Got our soda and sat center, center and the movie started. First of all it had Sally Fields (she's one of my all time favorite actors) so yay!!! Now for my review of this version of Spiderman. Overall I enjoyed the movie. I have to say that I don't think it added anything new to the Spiderman lore. The SFX were pretty good and I enjoyed the acting. The origin story was good but again it didn't feel original. If the Sam Rami Spiderman movies didn't exist this would be a pretty epic movie. Andrew Garfield who played Spiderman did a pretty good job acting more like a spider (being twitchy) and man is he a good crier. But over all it was just good movie, not great. I'd give it a B.

After dinner and a movie we said our goodbyes and would be seeing each other again on Saturday when we do this all over again for The Dark Knight Rises.

My Gimpy Life Podcast Launches

Download from itunes  http://ow.ly/coXnG or Listen, Direct Download http://mygimpylifepodcast.com

Today I released episode 0 of my new podcast/companioncast for Teal Sherer's new webseries My Gimpy Life. This is just an introduction podcast to the the podcast and webseries. First episode of the webseries will be out July 31st and the first companioncast will be out August 1st or 2nd. So watch the episode and then listen to some cool and hopefully informative behind the scenes goodies. 

Just released the podcast today and it's already hit #132 on the top 200 TV/Film audio podcasts... how cool is that.

The Day After - Goodbye Chris

Mondays are tough enough but the Monday after San Diego Comic Con are much harder. Lucky for me my best friend Chris was still with me. Jes, Rachel, Chris and I all got up bright and early. I was heading to work and Chris was joining me for the day. Rachel and Jes were getting ready to head back up north. I made some breakfast and we all sat around enjoying ones company. 8am came around and Chris and I headed out. The ladies would be leaving a bit later.

On the commute into work Chris and I worked on our new "secret project". This is something that started as a joke months ago and then this past weekend kind of evolved into something real. Both Chris and I are really excited for this. We talked none stop as Chris took notes. I'm sure I'll be talking more about this as it comes into clearer vision. 

Got to work around 9:30am and was greeted with new editors and story producers. Chris pulled a seat over to my cubicle and sat next to me. He worked on his ipad as I did my work. Lunch time we headed over to Daily Grill to meet up with Robert. Lunch was a lot of fun, it was great having two of my best friends with me. After lunch Robert took Chris over to his work place to show him around. About an hour later Chris returned. He planned to go to the movies with some Guildies so I loaned him my jeep and he headed over to the theater. He was going to return to my work around 7:30pm which worked out great as my job normally ends around 7pm. But at about 6:15 the power went out in the offices and remained out. Slowly everyone left the building except me as I didn't have my car. I sat around in the dark watching my cell phone battery slowly die.

As planned Chris returned at 7:30. I jumped in the drivers side and we were now off to Downtown Disney where Chris was meeting up with Jen. Once again during our commute (which wasn't as bad as I was expecting) we talked about our "special project"and went over more details.. both of us know that this is the right thing for us to do as everything flowed so easily.

Got to Downtown Disney and found a parking space. Waited about 10 minutes and Jen showed up. Chris was having dinner with Jen and then she was going to drive him to his hotel near the John Wayne Airport where he would be leaving back to Montana tomorrow morning at 7am. This was the moment I was not looking forward to all week. Last time I said goodbye to Chris I sobbed into his shoulder and my heart literally ached. But this time there were no tears, though my heart was aching. I gave him the best hug I could muster. I had to convey all the love and gratitude I had for him. SDCC would have been completely different if he wasn't by my side. I did cry a bit on the way home as it actually started to hit me that I wouldn't be seeing him tomorrow or the next day and probably not for a few months. I did stop by Taco Bell to get some comfort food for the drive home. Got home around 11pm and I was once again alone.

San Diego Comic Con Day 5

It's our final day at San Diego Comic Con. Part of me is happy because, though con is a blast it's extremely exhausting. but the other part of me knows that when it's over my bestie Chris is going back to Montana.

But we still have one more day to go. My brother left in the morning (had to get back to his family). This time Chris and I dressed up in our Star Trek uniforms. We had planned to get a large group of people together to cosplay in uniform but in the end it was only Chris and I. We walked around the floor starting on one side. Though we've been there for five days I still hadn't seen the entire floor. So we made our way from booth to booth. Our Star Trek uniforms were not nearly as popular as my Hobbit and Chris' Altair outfit. But I guess that was good since we really did want to see the floor and not be stopped every few feet. We meet up with some friends here and there but the majority of the day it was just Chris and I.

We stopped my Marian Call's booth to say hi and get pictures. I also picked up all three of her CD's. The only thing we planned for today was to go to the Star Wars cosplay panel. When we planned this we had six or seven people planning on dressing up in Star Trek uniforms and Chris thought it would be funny if we crashed their event. In the end it was only Chris, Aaron, Will and myself in uniforms and nothing really happened when we walked in. I know Chris was disappointed at the reaction and I was disappointed in the panel.. it was just boring.

After the panel we meet up with Rachel and Jes and finished walking the floor before heading back to our townhouse for rest before heading out to dinner.

The Strip Club has become some what of a tradition as the place for our goodbye dinner. This is a place where you cook your own meat. Chris wanted to go here again though he complained last year about having to cook his own meat. We had a large party and it kept getting bigger. We ended up with something like 18 people but it was a great way to end con. Everyone had some yummy steaks that Chris and Olivia grilled and to end the dinner we all sang Happy Birthday to Milynn.

We slowly said our goodbyes to everyone before heading back to the townhouse to grab our stuff and walk it back to the car. Olivia and Thomas joined us to say goodbye. After his goodbyes to Olivia and Thomas we all piled in Jes' car with even more stuff then we came with. Once again Chris and I got really cozy in the backseat.

The drive home was uneventful. Jes' GPS took us what seemed to be a longer route but in the end it avoided all the traffic and we got home in a little over three hours. We unloaded the car and crashed at my place.

San Diego Comic Con 2012 has come to an end.

Overall it was a fantastic con. One of my favorites in recent years and there are two reasons for that. One I just relaxed and didn't try to get into any panels, I just cosplayed the entire time and two I got to spend the majority of my time with my best friend Chris. I couldn't imagine doing this with anyone else. I can't wait for SDCC 2013.. let the planning begin.

You can see all my Con pictures HERE