The Ups & Downs of Saturday

Today my buddy Adam was coming over for the weekend to work. Many find my place a retreat from the world and he really needed to focus. I spent the morning cleaning up the house. I've been cleaning all week long but this was dusting, vacuuming and such. Around 10:30 I got a text from him letting me know that he wasn't feeling so hot and was going to rest and not be up today. I was bummed as I was looking forward to hanging with him but understood his situation. Later in the day I texted him and asked if he was going to come up on Sunday and he said that once he felt better he actually got into a groove and thought it would be better to just stay home.

So with Adam not coming over, I took a break for household duties and watched four episodes of Lost Girl. I have 10 eps from Season Two on my DVR. Once you start watching it's so hard to stop. I did manage to pull myself away after four. Which leaves six to go.

I got an email from my friend America asking for me to participate in "something". I can't officially announce it yet but when I can you know I will. I of course said yes as it sounds super fun. So stay tuned for more information on that.

I tweeted and facebooked a request for more guests for my Confessions of a Fanboy podcast. I really let this podcast fall by the waste side. So today I decided to step it up and put the request out there. I'll set up interview skype calls this week and get a backlog of guests recordings so I can go back to releasing an episode a month. 

Was suppose to go to dinner with my buddy Christopher and his sister, unfortunately his sister got food poisoning a few days ago and still wasn't feeling to hot so it was cancelled... which left my night open and my buddy Chris filled it with 3 and a half hours of Minecraft (that game is so addictive).

I wasn't as productive today as I would have liked to have been and I think being alone for the week (since I'm jobless) started me down that "funk" path I was in when I was out of work for nine months. I really need to not go down that road again. Wasn't a happy place and I don't wish to visit it again. I can say by the end of the night and having played Minecraft with Chris my spirits were lifted and I did go bed feeling better. Let's hope I stop the funk before it starts.

My Podcasts

So I took a break from all my household chores and wanted to see how much time I have put into my podcasts. Some are going strong, some have stalled a bit and some haven't even gotten started.

Podcast #1 - Knights of the Guild Podcast was started on February 15th 2009. I've released 120 Podcasts, Companioncasts, mincasts and microcasts. Last one released on August 12, 2012. Releasing new episodes has kind of been a bit sporadic.. yeah I'm a bit behind on this one. I have gone back and forth on weather or not I should continue this one. I was on the set of season six and do plan to do companioncasts for that season but still need to get quite a few interviews from the cast before those can happen. Unlike S4 and S5 these companioncasts will not be out a day or two after the episodes. I'm thinking I'll start releasing them sometime in November. After season six companioncasts are over I'll reassess the podcast and see if it has any more life left in it. Though it has had big numbers in the past, up to 40,000 downloads in a month the listening audience has dwindled down to about 3000 a month (which btw is still a pretty good number). So I'm not sure what the future hold for this podcast.. guess that kind of depends on what happens to The Guild after Season six.. only time will tell.

Podcast #2 - MASH 4077 Podcast was started on February 3, 2011. I've released 45 episodes so far, 40 regular episodes and 5 Swampcast episodes. This is co-hosted by my buddies Al and Meds. This podcast comes out on the 1st and 15th of every month like clockwork. The audience for this podcast continues to grow as MASH fans find out that there is a podcast for their favorite TV show. We went from 200 downloads a month when we first started to 4000 - 6000 downloads a month now.  There is no end in site for this podcast. I very much enjoy recording this one with my co-hosts and the listeners seemed to be really enjoying it. We are doing one episode per podcast twice a month. There are 251 episodes of MASH, if we continue to release 2 month we still have about 8.7 years of podcasts ahead of us. This is a keeper.

Podcast #3 - Confessions of a Fanboy Podcast was started on August 8th, 2011. I've released 10 episodes so far. I wanted to start this podcast for the "every" fanboy/girl. A place for them to talk about their love for one particular thing, geeky, sporty, music. The audience for this podcast has been small and I expect will continue to be small. I can get as low as 70 downloads a month to 400 downloads in a month, but the average is about 200 a month. This is more my fun podcast, were I can geek out with fellow fanboys/fangirls. The last Confessions was released on June 14th, 2012. There isn't a lack of Fanboys or Fangirls to interview.. it's more a lack of time for me to sit down and record podcasts with these folks. I've really let this one go. When I started this podcast I figured I could release an episode once a month but the release schedule has been quite sporadic, but hopefully I'll be able to get back on track again with this podcast. I really do enjoy doing this one. And edit wise it's the easiest to edit. Stay tuned for more Confessions of a Fanboy/girl.

Podcast #4 - Alien Nation The Newcomer Podcast was started on January 9, 2012. I've released 10 episodes so far. My co-host is my brother Michael. This podcast comes out once a month on the 10th of every month (or close to it). Both my brother and I are huge fans of Alien Nation and I've been wanting to do a podcast with my brother for a while so this choice of topic seemed natural, especially since there aren't any other Alien Nation podcasts out there.This podcast has struggled to find an audience. We started out with very low numbers and it's has steadily gotten bigger. We're currently up to about 250 downloads a month, at this point I was hoping for more but as long as we continue to grow I'm happy. I enjoy doing this podcast with my brother.. we always have a ton of fun. We record one episode per podcast. This series only lasted one season (22 episodes) and had 5 TV movies along with a dozen novels and comic books. We plan on reviewing everything and figure we have a good three years or so for this podcast.

Podcast #5 - My Gimpy Life Podcast was started on July 17, 2012. I've released 8 episodes so far, including regular podcasts, companioncasts, & promo. I started this podcast for my friend Teal and her new webseries with the same title My Gimpy Life. When I first started all I had planned to do was companioncasts for each episode and maybe a intro podcast and a season wrap podcast. But after talking to Teal we agree to try and release a podcast a month, in hopes that there will be a season two and I can continue to do companioncasts for those as well. Will see where this podcast goes. Right now I'm just having some fun with my friend Teal.

Podcast #6 - The Geek Roundtable Podcast has not launched yet. This started as Epic Geek Out Podcast with a different co-host back in October of 2010. It now has a new name, a new co-host Charles and a slightly tweaked format. This is the podcast that I've been wanting to do since I started podcasting. All my podcasts are for very "specific " topics and I've always wanted to do a more "general" geek podcast and this is it.  It's been six months since Charles and I revived this idea and still no podcast. The way this podcast is structured makes it difficult to just record with Charles.. we plan to do a roundtable on geeky topic which means we have 2 to 3 additional guest hosts. Trying to get everyone's schedule to line up has been difficult. But I am determined to get this podcast off the ground before the end of the year.

Needless to say that this hobby has turned into a full time job.. just wish it paid better :) I'd love to be a full time podcaster and make a living at it but at this moment in time that's just not possible. Who knows may one day it will happen. Thank you to all who download and listen to my various podcasts. I appreciate all the love and support I get from each and everyone of you.

BTS Pixs & Minecraft Scare

Finally had a free moment to post some pictures from past events. I posted a bunch of pictures that I took while on set of Season 1 of My Gimpy Life. I was on set half the days and got some good BTS stuff. You can check them out HERE.  I also posted some pictures from a shoot that was done at my house. Gamer Girl, Country Boy music video. That was a lot of fun and you can see some BTS pictures HERE. Still have a bunch of photos from my time on the set of The Guild S2 - S6 that I'll be posting at some point.

Put a tweet out there for some help with fixing up my house. Got a few people to help me out. The big weekend is Oct 13/14 as I'll be painting my house. I did manage to get one person to agree to help.. Thanks Rupert. Hope others can join in to make the job go by much faster.

Continued to go out and work on my yard. First attempt lasted about 20 minutes and my second attempt lasted 30 minutes. Still working on the space in between my house and garage and it's really starting to look good. Still got lots to go.

Finished my night off with 3 1/2 hours of Minecraft with my buddy Chris. Not a fan of the monster mode as I have mentioned in previous blogs but tonight it was super creepy. Chris called it a night around 11pm (12am his time) but I wanted to put in another hour or so. I actually sealed myself up in my "hobbit" hole that I am creating and went down to my deepest room when suddenly this long black shimmery thing was hiding in corner.. scared me half to death. I quickly ran upstairs to my top room and sealed the entire room off. That was the end of my Minecraft play for the night. 

Living alone in the middle of nowhere where it's pitch black and quiet as can be and just having the life scared out of you doesn't make for a pleasant evening of sleep.

Yard Work, TV, Minecraft & Buffy

Project "Sell My House" continues once again with Yard work first thing in the morning. Luckily for me it's cooling down so when I do go out it's a bit cooler. Today we actually had a nice breeze so I was able to be a bit more yard work done today then yesterday. I have almost every weed pulled from between my house and the garage. I also used my newly stringed weed wacker to take out the weeds on the left side of my drive way. Still lots to go but I'm making progress.

Continue to take breaks and try and catch up on some of my recorded TV. I also did a few hours on Minecraft with my bestie Chris. I play on his server and today we moved to another part of the world and started completely over. We also have monster mode on.. not a big fan of that. I enjoy the game for the building of things.. not the fighting of monsters.

I replaced the toilet seat in my guest bathroom. It's now the proper size. Can mark that off my list of things to do.

And for the evening I drove out to Mar Vista to hang out with my buddy Robert. It's our Buffy Rewatch night. We first picked up some Taco Bell for dinner.. then continued our Buffy viewing. We are still on Season 2 and started with  "Passion". That's one of the best of Season 2, in my opinion. Next was "Killed by Death" which was okay, then we watched  "I Only Have Eyes For You", a good episode and what is crazy one of the guest stars in this episode actually responded to my tweet.. .pretty awesome. And finally to finish off the night we watched "Go Fish". Not a favorite of mine but not horrible. So that ended our Buffy and Bros night.

Didn't stay the night like I normally do as I'm not working in town and traffic would be much easier at night then in the morning.. so we said our goodbyes and I headed home.

Yard Work, TV and a BroDate with Will

Project " Sell My House" continues.. woke up this morning and managed to get a half hour of  yard work in and finished cleaning my kitchen. I tired really hard to be productive all day yesterday. I avoided the TV the entire day. Today I wasn't so lucky. I have a ton of TV recorded on my DVR so today I decided to take a break from being productive and watch some of my recorded TV.

Around 5pm I headed out to Lowes to pick up a replacement toilet seat (I mentioned this a few months ago that I purchased the wrong size for my guest room). Well now that I'm selling the house I wanted to get the proper size so I did. I also picked up some replacement string for my weed whacker. But the main reason that I left the house was to head out and have dinner with my buddy Will.

I haven't seen him since my birthday weekend as he's been super busy with his job but he did manage to pull himself away for a few hours and meet me at Gordan Biersch for dinner. We had a great dinner.. lasted almost 3 hours. We talked about everything under the sun. He even slapped me across the face, twice, in the middle of the restaurant (long story). It was a great night. We finally said our goodbyes around 11:30pm.. I headed home and he headed back to work. That boy works to hard sometimes. But it was a great visit and I can't wait to hang with him again soon... love you buddy.

Selling My House

Some of you may know that I'm planning on selling my house. Harry and I purchased it three year ago and made it our dream house. Harry put down a large down payment and I'm unable to payout his portion of it so I have to sell it.

Harry and I broke up over a year and a half ago but I had to wait three years before I could sell the house because of contract restrictions. Anyways the three years are up and it's time to sell so I can give Harry back his money.

I love this house and it has so many great memories but it is far from friends and family and though I do like being isolated I get lonely alot. The internet is crap out here and I can't wait until I can get high speed again (and netflix).. it's been far too long.

There is a lot of work that needs to be done before I can put the house up for sale. I mean I can sale it as is but I want to maximize every dollar and get the best price possible and if that means I have to put a few dollars in to make it look nicer then so be it. I plan to paint the outside of the house, there is lots of chipped paint. I plan to sand down the back porch and re-stain it. My buddy Chris already took down the decrepit railing. The 2 1/2 arches of land is the toughest part. There are overgrown weeds everywhere and it's a constant battle to keep everything in check.

Besides those three huge things I have a few paint touch ups inside and need to give the inside a really good cleaning. I hope to take the month of October off (now that I'm out of work) and focus on doing all these fixes so I can list the property starting sometime in November.

I know that this property is unique and will take some special people to want it. I'm not kidding myself I know it could be a matter of days or years before I sell the place. Once it is sold I plan to move back to the valley area.. depending on how much we get for the house I may buy myself a townhouse.

So starting today I begin project "Sell My House". I did about two hours of yard work and to be honest it doesn't look like I did much,  but I noticed the difference. It was so hot outside (over 100) that two hours almost killed me. So I moved inside and did a bit of cleaning around house.

Once I got bored with cleaning I worked on several podcasts and played Minecraft for about 3 hours. I haven't played in a few months but man that game just sucks you in and the time flies when your in that world.

I'll keep everyone updated on my progress and if you are local and would like to help me out, I would really appreciate it. If you do want to help contact me and I'll let you know when a good time would be. Not only will you get my appreciation but I'll feed you lunch and/or dinner... can't pass that up.

My Gimpy Life Podcast #6

Download from iTunes ow.ly/e8Buw or Listen, get direct download from mygimpylifepodcast.com

Now that My Gimpy Life season one series has come to an end. There will be no more companioncasts, but that doesn't mean the podcast is over... far from it.

Teal and I recorded a podcast about a month ago and I've been so busy that I haven't had time to edited it.. so I spent three hours today doing so and here it is.

This is the first of many episodes where I sit down with the creator Teal Sherer as we talk about her thoughts on the overall season. Teal also answers some questions for Gimpy fans. We love to hear your thought in future podcasts or if you have any questions for Teal. Please email me an audio comment or written email to MyGimpyLifePodcast@gmail.com

thanks & enjoy,
Kenny

MASH 4077 Podcast Episode #40

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 2, Episode #16 - Henry in Love
40th Episode Overall
Directed by Don Weis
Written by Larry Gelbart, Laurence Marks
Production code K416
Original air date January 5, 1974

Set during the Korean War in the 1950’s

Plot Summary: Henry returns from a week in Tokyo, to announce that he is in love with a 20-year old girl called Nancy Sue Parker. She arrives for the weekend, and Henry shows her off. Nancy comes on to Hawkeye while Henry is in surgery. Henry is reminded of his wife back home when Radar places a call for him, and he realises it's his wife he loves.

Hope you enjoy it, Kenny

Podcasts and TV

Today was all about Podcasting and Catching up on TV. First thing I did this morning was watch MASH S2 episodes 17 to 22. I was recording the next six episodes of my MASH podcast and I had yet to watch the episodes. I mean I've seen all the episodes but it's nice to watch them a few days before to refresh your memory. So I did four episodes before I took a break and watched the mid season finale of Doctor Who. I was going to watch it with my bestie Chris. We both held off watching it until we both had time to watch together, though I'm in Cali and he's in Montana.. we make it work.

This was the last episode that would feature the Ponds as his companions. We've known since this season began that they were leaving in this episode. But we didn't know what to expect. Were they going to kill them off or have them just forget or what. I have to say I was not disappointed. I also cried like a baby several times, especially at the very end. It was a very bitter sweet ending for the Ponds.

After Who I watched the premiere of Star Wars The Clone Wars season five. It was a good start to the season. I didn't think it was an OMG amazing episode but it was good. I'm looking forward to my weekly dose of Star Wars for the next few months.

Then I finished watching the remaining two episodes of MASH right before I jumped online to record a further six episodes of my MASH 4077 Podcast. Meds and Al, my co-hosts joined me and though we had some major skype issues I think the shows turned out pretty well. It's going to take some creative editing but that's not uncommon for this podcast.

After I finished the podcasts I ran out to grab a bite to eat. When I got back I watched some more TV. This time I watched an episode of Hot Set. It's a new Syfy competition show with production designers. My friends Greg Aronowitz and Red 5 were featured as one of the competitors and they actually won $10,000. Besides Greg being my friend his set/concept was leaps and bounds better then his competitor. It's a fun show.. I'll continue to watch.

And finally it was time for the second season premiere of Once Upon A Time. This IS my favorite tv show on right now. I watched it with my bestie Chris since we use to watch it together before he moved to Montana. So now we watch it together and text back and forth. And like with Who it was a blast watching it with him. We'd texted each other with questions or OMG or reactions to what just happen. It's amazing how close you can feel to someone when you're watching the same thing 1000 miles apart. Loved, loved, loved the opening of season two. Interesting twist and I can't wait to see how this season plays out.

So it was a full day of podcasting and TV.. good times where had.