LOTRO, Podcasts and Buffy

I was determined to not let LOTRO take over to day today. Got up at 8am, looked for a job (no luck). I had scheduled an hour to go online, get breakfast and do whatever. So I ate, watched a half hour TV show and then jumped onto LOTRO to get my daily Hobbit gift but immediately got off as it was 9am and according to my schedule it was time to start editing my Knights of the Guild podcast.

I had already done some prep work a few days ago so all I had to do was polish the piece and make sure it sound good. So it only took me a little over an hour to finish the episode. After it's edited, I run it through an audio leveling program, then import it into Audacity, check it and then output an MP3. Once that it done I import it to itunes, attach the logo picture and then upload it to podbean. Once uploaded to podbean, I have to create the show notes, build the page, attached the podcast and submit it to itunes. The process can talk up to a few hours depending on my upload speeds.

So around 10:30am KOTG podcast was ready to go. As a reward I decided to jump onto LOTRO and play for an hour or so. And I'm happy to say I did exactly that. I played for about an hour and a half, which took me to about noon.. from noon to one I had lunch and watched some recorded TV before jumping back on the computer and starting to prep my next MASH 4077 Podcast. Spent a few hours doing that before calling it a day as I had to get ready to head over to my buddy Robert's place as it is Wednesday and if you are a regular reader of my blog you know Wednesday's are Buffy and Bros nights.

Got to his place just before seven.. we ordered some Italian for dinner and started our rewatch/1st time. We are in the middle of Season Six. Our first episode of the night was Ep 11 "Gone" A social services worker threatens to take Dawn from Buffy. The Trio accidentally make Buffy invisible.

I remember watching this episode for the first time and just hating Buffy. I thought it was so out of character for her to do what she does in this episode. But watching it ten years later I actually have a  better understanding as to why she is doing what she is doing. Still not a favorite episode of mine but enjoyable.. glad that Buffy and the gang finally know about the Trio.

Our second episode of the night is Ep 12 "Doublemeat Palace" To deal with her escalating financial problems, Buffy gets a job as a kitchen worker at the Doublemeat Palace, a California-based fast food restaurant chain, which she quickly finds to be degrading and dull. Furthermore, a series of strange events, combined with the disappearances of employees, leads Buffy to believe that it may not be cow's meat that they serve here...

I know alot of people say this is one of the worst episodes of Buffy, I don't know if I'd go that far.. I mean it's entertaining. Not an episode I'd want to watch over and over again.

Third episode of the night, Ep 13 "Dead Things" The Trio try to make Warren's ex-girlfriend Katrina their willing sexual slave by magical means. But when she fights back she is accidentally killed, they use magical and demonic forces to make Buffy think that she has killed Katrina. Between finding out the truth about her resurrection and believing she killed an innocent girl, Buffy's world begins to fall apart.

Again like with "Gone" wasn't a favorite of mine the first time around but watching it again gave me a better appreciation for it. Really dislike the Trio in this one. I mean it's pretty much just Warren, Andrew just kind of follows and poor Jonathan is just stuck in the middle. Interesting to see how Buffy reacts to "killing" an innocent compared to how Faith reacted... nice contrast.

Our final episode of the night is Ep 14 "Older and Far Away"  When Dawn feels that nobody wants to spend time with her, she makes a wish in front of a Vengeance demon (posing as school counselor) that everyone would stay with her. During Buffy's birthday party, Dawn's penchant for shoplifting is discovered while the gang tries to figure out why nobody is able to leave the house. Finally, Anya calls the vengeance demon and tricks her into undoing her curse.

Another good episode, nothing great but we do finally resolve the "Dawn" stealing things. It was great to see Tara back in the mix and Xander starting to get cold feet. Dawn is so annoying in this episode.. I don't remember her being such an emo teen.

So ends our Buffy and Bros night... I always say this but it's so true, spending time with Robert is the highlight of my week. Even thought it's only about 3 or so hours and a few hours of commute it's total worth it... Robert's the best.