Hanging with Friends

I was up at 7am and getting in a little LOTRO play before my buddy Rupert arrived. He was coming over to hang out with me for the day. It's been a while since we got to hang out so we arranged to do it today. He arrived around noon and we headed out to lunch. After lunch we went to Target to look around, I had a few things I needed to get.

Once we were back at my place we sat down to watch Les Miserable. I have a screener copy of it and Rupert saw it in the theater and loved it and asked if we could watch it again. I've only seen it once with my buddy Chris out in Montana so I was up for another viewing. The movie ended just in time as we needed to get ready to head out with Anthony and Michele to Dallas' "I got a job" dinner party.

We were to first to arrived at Pitfire Grill out in North Hollywood. They had a table set aside for us so we sat down and waited for others to arrive. Little by little folks showed up until we were a large party of 20. It was great seeing everyone. Some I'd hadn't seen in months, others only a week. We sat around and talked, ate and had a great time until about 10pm. Michele (who is pregnant) was tired and since Rupert and I drove with these guys we had to call it a night. It was alot of fun catching up with folks. Whenever I'm with this group of friends it alway amazes me on how lucky I really am.

Got home around 11pm, said goodbye to Rupert and headed to bed. A very long but enjoyable Saturday.

I want to mention also that today is Greg Aronowitz's Birthday. I met Greg a few years back working on the Guild. He is one of the most talented and creative guys I know. He's friends with the likes of Spielberg and Lucas just to name a few. He's worked on many blockbuster movies and has done so many great things. I can just sit next him and listen to his incredible stories all day. Anyways I wanted to wish him a VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY and to say how thankful I am that he is part of my life.

You can check out Greg's FANTASTIC blog HERE.

Rings, Wings & Giants

Got up at 7am and jumped onto LOTRO. I got my new roommate Anthony to join so we started questing together. It's fun playing LOTRO solo but it's so much better when you're part of a fellowship. Because I'm playing more I'm actually understanding the game alot better. I'm understanding "deeds" and "instances" and such. If you read my blog you know I have four characters. I have my main character Drialdo, he's a Hobbit, I have my 1st alt character Kiwyn, she's a human, my 2nd alt character is Gillthilion, he's an elf and my 3rd alt character Arikk and he's a Dwarf. Of course Drialdo is my highest leveled character as I play him the most. I did manage to get Kiwyn up to level 25 and then started working on Gillthilion.

I'm trying to get each one of my characters to at least level 20, so I can buy a stead and travel around faster. I manage to get Gillthilion to level 20 today, which made me super happy. Now it's time to get Arikk my Dwarf to level 20, he's currently level 13 and depending on how much I play it may take me a week or so to do that. Anyways if you want to read more about my LOTRO characters here's a blog post I did back in January.

For the evening my new roommates Anthony and Michele wanted to take me out to dinner as a Thank You. We went to Chili's and had a nice dinner. I of course am a creator of habit so when I find something I like I tend to eat it over and over and Chili's had some great Chicken strips with buffalo wing sauce. Afterwards we headed over to Edwards to watch a movie. We were debating on seeing Jack the Giant Slayer or Oz: The Great and Powerful. We agreed that Jack will be leaving theaters sooner so we should see it now and that's what we did.

If you don't know this movie is here's a brief synopsis: The ancient war between humans and a race of giants is reignited when Jack, a young farmhand fighting for a kingdom and the love of a princess, accidentally opens a gateway between the two worlds.

This movie was shot many years ago and because of behind the scenes drama it took a while for it to be released. The original title was Jack the Giant Killer, there is even a trailer with that title. But I guess Killer didn't test well so it was changed to Slayer.

My Review... As you all know if you are a regular reader of my blog that I'm a HUGE Fantasy lover. I think I like Fantasy more then Science Fiction (if i had to choose, thank goodness I don't have to). So I was looking forward to this movie. Of course it's based on Jack and the Beanstalk. When I left the theater I was satisfied. I thought the movie was good, it has a simply story, great effects and was just a fun adventure ride. Bryan Singer was the director and I have enjoyed all of his work. It had Ewen McGregor, who I adore and he was great in this. I enjoyed the little nods to the original fairytale and they fact that Fee, Fi, Fo and Fum were names of Giants. There were some great laughs and excellent action sequences. I would defiantly watch this again and will be buying it on blu-ray when it comes out. One thing I really enjoyed about the writing/character were the bad guys, they were so bad I was literally annoyed by them and when their end came I was extremely satisfied. I give Jack the Giant Slayer a solid B

Podcasting Vs. LOTRO

Since I started playing Lord of the Rings Online (LOTRO) I have been struggling with my other hobby, podcasting. I currently have six podcasts, but only three really running at the moment; MASH 4077 Podcast, Alien Nation: The Newcomers Podcast and Knights of the Guild podcast. Confessions of a Fanboy is still going but I haven't released a new episode since the end of last year. Also My Gimpy Life podcast is on hiatus until a second season of that webseries is announced (if it actually happens) and my sixth podcast The Geek Roundtable has been in the works since October of 2010 but still hasn't seen the light of day.

Anyways I feel like when I do have free time all I want to do is play LOTRO but I have a great group of listeners who enjoy my podcasts and being a podcast listener myself I know how much I hate it when a favorite podcast of mine doesn't come out on a regularly scheduled time table.

So today I forced myself to finish my next Alien Nation podcast as it comes out in 3 days. I still have another MASH podcast to do and would love to get a KOTG and a new Confessions of a Fanboy done. But the call of the game got to me and as soon as I was done with the Alien Nation podcast I told myself that it was good enough and I should reward myself with playing a few hours of LOTRO.

Now I know better, I know when I start playing LOTRO I lose track of time and the next thing I know it's been six, seven, twelve hours but I was weak and didn't care. Of course after playing I'm upset with myself as I didn't get as much work done on podcasts as I would have liked. It's a vicious cycle, but it's tough finding a nice balance between the two hobbies.. and I'm sure I'll continue to struggle with it for the foreseeable future.. wish me luck :)

LOTRO & Buffy

Today was my first official "out of work" day, since being let go. So what better to do then to play Lord of the Rings Online (LOTRO) all day. I woke up at 8am and started playing. Six hours later I realized that I was hungry and needed to take a break. Time sure flies when you're questing and killing orcs.

I was heading over to Roberts for some Buffy Re-Watch but first I had to stop by my old work to drop off some documents and they surprised me with a cake. It was very nice of them but of course the EP who had me fired acted all kind and sweet. I did find out after I left, that she went around to each person and tried to do some damage control. She found out that I did email everyone the night I was let go and when she said in the meeting the next day that I decided to leave, she was caught in a lie... so stupid!!
 
Anyways.. I headed over to Roberts for some pizza and Buffy re-watch. We're well into Season Four and tonight's episode were The Initiative, Pangs, Something Blue, and  Hush.

The Initiative was better then I remembered, we find out about Riley and the operatives running around the college. We have "neutered" Spike. Lot's of story moments and laughs.

Pangs was kind of like a "monster of the week" episode with a vengeful Native American spirit. Buffy wants to have the perfect Thanksgiving. Once again this episode is full of Joss witting writing and so many laughs.

Something Blue was another great episode, Willow is still upset after the breakup with Oz so she does a spell that, of course, back fires and causes her friends to have a few issues. Giles goes blind, Xander attracts monsters, Buffy and Spike are a couple and start planning their wedding. Lots of laughs and again great character dialogue.

And for our final episode of the night, it's one of my favorites "Hush". I've been waiting to share this episode with Robert since we started. Love this episode, it's creepy, funny and so amazing that two thirds of the episode is done in silence. And it also introduces one of my favorite characters on Buffy.. Tara. 

So we had four great episodes tonight. Lot's of fun and laughs. Can't wait to do this all again next week.

The Next Day

So yesterday I was let go and today they asked if I would come in and show the new guy who was replacing me around. Give him the low down on what's been going on. Of course me being me I say yes. I figured it would also be nice to say goodbye to everyone.  I did emailed the staff last night and informed them that I was let go and that this new guy would be replacing me. I got a lot of very supportive emails in return... that was nice.

When the EP got into work she called a meeting. We all gathered and she began by saying "Well Kenny has decided to leave us." several heads turned to me with the expression of  "I thought they fired you" look. I was shocked and I really don't know why since she's "saving face" by not telling everyone that she's the one who had me fired. Instead all is well as she continue to live in her fairytale land of crazy.

I didn't say anything as I really didn't want start up anything. Several of the employees came to my office later and said.. So when did you quit.. and I said  jokingly I guess it was moments before they fired me. It's hilarious to me that she blatantly lied in front of the entire staff and everyone knew since they got the email I sent out the night before.  Just goes to show you what kind of person she really is.

Anyways I hung out at work most of the day giving the new guy the low down and the great thing is he said from what he's seen I did a fantastic job and he really doesn't see what he's going to be able to do unless they make the changes that I've been saying they need to do since the beginning. But that's no longer my problem and it feels great.

Gonna take the rest of this week off and then begin my job search next Monday.

Wait... What!!!!

So today at 5pm I got an email from one of my bosses asking to come over to the main office to go over the post schedule. We were to meet at 6pm. I left my office and headed over to the main office and got there at 6 on the dot. I walked into his office and we started to talk post schedule. About 5 minutes in he started to talk about the EP and how we are just not meshing well. I knew then that something was up. And sure enough seconds later he said I just think it would be best if we parted ways.

I was being let go, fired. This has only happened one other time in my career. But instead of being sad or upset I was jumping for joy. I would never quit a job, I've only done that once in my career. I just suck it up and push through even though I'm miserable. So being let go is a win win for me. I get out of the hellish job, get away from a very unprofessional and bullying Executive Producer and I get to collect unemployment while I look for another job.

I think my reaction caught him off guard. I think he expect me to be upset and walk out, not smile and be so happy. But it's a relief, I know I did a great job. Everyone I worked with have said that I did a great job with the circumstances that were given to me. The only person who didn't like me was the EP. I didn't burn any bridges with this company. And I don't care if I burned any bridges with the EP as I never plan to work with her again.

After the meeting and he saw that I was in a good mood, he asked if I would talk to the new Post Super, the person replacing me. He seemed like a nice guy and I wish him the best of luck.

They asked if I would come in tomorrow to help settle in the new guy, I said sure. They said they would pay me for the entire week, so that's cool. I don't mind coming in and helping out for the day.. so that's the plan. After tomorrow I'll be unemployed once again. I plan to take the rest of the week off and then start the process of finding another and hopefully more enjoyable job.

Oh Willow!!!!

Today I found out that one of my favorite fantasy movies of all time Willow actually had a trilogy of books written afterwards:

"Lucas outlined the Chronicles of the Shadow War trilogy to follow the film and hired comic book writer/novelist Chris Claremont to adapt them into a series of books. They take place about fifteen years after the original film and feature the now teenage Elora Danan as the central character." The three books are Shadow Moon (1995), Shadow Dawn (1996) and finally Shadow Star (2000).

I searched for audio books (my preferred way of reading books) but it looks like only the first book was made into an audio book and it's only on cassette. Guess I'll be buying the actual books and reading them. I can't wait to delve back into that world.

Souffles, Podcasts, LOTRO and Friends

Today I woke up and my new roommate Anthony was making some breakfast souffles. I've never had a souffle but it sounds very tasty. This is defiantly an upside to having roommates. Breakfast was ready and man was it good. I think I'm going to make something similar for my next movie marathon weekend.

I went to go work on my Alien Nation podcasts as it's due on the 10th and found out all that work I put into it yesterday was for nothing. The avi files that I created yesterday and uploaded were not good and there was nothing in them. So instead of finishing up my Alien Nation podcast I had to come up with another way of burning the DVD's and extracting the audio. This process took about three hours. During this time I could have worked on another podcast but instead I opted to catch up on some TV.

Once the videos were done an uploaded I really wasn't in the podcasting mood anymore so I pushed it off once again :( It's a problem that I have.  Instead I played some LOTRO. My bud Chris hasn't been around (busy with work) so I've been playing alone. I'm been using my female human Kiwyn alot since I reserve my Hobbit Drialdo for play with Chris. Kiwyn is leveling up nicely.

For the evening I headed over to my friend Sebastian's place. They moved a few days ago and I was going to check it out and have dinner with him and his girlfriend Amanda. It was great seeing these guys, I haven't seen Sebastian since before Christmas. We had dinner, complained about our jobs and had a nice evening.

When I got home Anthony and Michele were home and I checked out their first picture (ultrasound) of their baby.. looked like a peanut.. though a very cute peanut :) I called it a night and went to bed. I am not looking forward to work tomorrow.