Parks, Farmer's Market and Family

Woke up this morning around 8:30am which was a surprise as I went to bed five hours earlier at 3:30am... but for only having 5 hours sleep and being a big drunk I felt pretty good. I actually got out of bed around 9am and started unpacking boxes. Now that I have a pantry I can start loading it up with food that has been in boxes for weeks. While I was unpacking my buddy Will texted me and asked if I wanted to go for a walk around the park with him. I, of course said yes. But before I could go for the hike I had to unload from car from yesterday as I never unloaded the final load of things. Well ten minutes later not only was Will at my front door but also Jen and Dallas. We had everything up in my apartment in now time.

We started walking around the park but then Will mentioned that there was a small farmer's market just down the street. I guess it happens every Saturday, so we headed over. It as very small but the best part was the live music. We grabbed a bite to eat and sat and watched this "older" group of people preform. They were all pretty good.. afterwards we stayed around and chatted with them for a bit. I plan to go back to the farmer's market in the near future. After the market we finished walking around the park.. it was a good time. 

After the park I headed down to my brother's to exchange cars. Since I no longer was doing storage runs I was able to give back Lora's car and pick up my little Fiesta. I hung out with the family for about four hours before heading home.

I was tired and it was hitting me hard, while driving down to my brother's I felt myself getting very sleepy. So on the drive home I gave Erik a call and he kept me company (and awake) while I drove home... thanks Erik.

Once home my sleepiness was gone and I continued to get ready for tomorrows big move. I had to move things around so we could get the big pieces of furniture into my new apartment. I'm dreading but also super excited for tomorrows move.

It's All About #Bulzt

Photo courtesy of new friend Mauricio

~#BULZT~

An addendum to my last blog post... my buddy Erik pointed out that I didn't mention anything about #bulzt. For those who had the privilege of seeing all the tweets tonight about that here is the story.

I was drunk and I tweeted "So I'm drunk...bulzt having a great time!!!" of course bulzt was suppose to be but and I even asked my friend Jen to look at the tweet before I sent it and she said it looked fine. So I tweeted and my buddy Sean saw it and thought it was a funniest thing in the world and he turned it into thing. Soon many of party goers from Grant Imahara 

• @grantimahara Jan 11 "@ShannAwesome: “@hxcofficemonkey "@JesReaves: "@seanbecker: #bulzt" #bulzt" #bulzt" #bulzt" #bulzt"  

... to the birthday boy himself Jason Charles Miller

• @jasoncmiller Jan 11 #bulzt killer party authority @Geekyfanboy is making a #bulztnation

 ... where hash tagging their tweets with #bulzt.

They also started tweeting # versions of bulzt like #bulztnation, #battleofthebulzt, #thunderbulzt & #canihazbulzt

I love that my little mistake turned into a few hours of "awesome" on twitter. Thanks Sean for making it so.

Pantries, Parties and Pals

Spent my morning building the two bookshelves I purchased from IKEA a few days ago. These bookshelves are to become my new food pantry. One set will have doors and the other will have pull out boxes.

Took me a few hours but I got both done and I think they turned out pretty good. Unfortunately the boxes I had gotten were to big for the bookshelves. At first I was going to return them and try and get smaller ones but a friend on Facebook (Scarlett) mentioned that I should try and adjust the shelves to see if they can fit that way. I had thought about it but never tired it.. so I did and it worked. I can't use the nine boxes as planned but I did manage to get four of them in and then I put two more on top and I'll be putting two more of the boxes on top of the fridge when I get that in.

Overall I'm very happy with the final product.

I did my final run to the storage unit.. yay!!! I picked up the final load of small furniture things that I could fit in my car. I am soooooooo happy that this part of my move is over. Never again will I move over a weeks time.

I still have the "big" move this weekend but once that is over I will be done with the move and I can try and bring some sort of order to my chaotic life.

During the evening I was invited to my friend Jason Charles Millers birthday party. He's an amazing musical and voice over artist. Now that I'm living in North Hollywood I was able to actually walk to where he was having the party. So I first picked up my friend Jen and we walked to our friends Jes and Dallas' place and joining us at their place was our friend Leslie. We then walked over to the party together. It was a ton a fun. I actually had a few shots of some Coldcock whiskey and then a few glasses of vodka and cranberry, I was feeling pretty good. We left the party around 3am and started to make our way home. Joining us for our walk home was Sean. We dropped off Dallas, Jes

and Leslie and the three of us continued to my place. Jen and Sean walked me all the way to my apartment to make sure I made it home safely.. thanks guys. They left and I crashed.

Update on the Erik and Kenny adventure.. Besides texting back and forth throughout the day, I did talk with Erik for a few minutes while I waited for Leslie to arrive at Dallas and Jes' place. We discussed our expectations of this budding friendship/relationship. He wanted to make sure we were on the same page (honesty is the best policy). I know I like Erik more then I should for the amount of time we've have known each other but we are both very realistic guys.. he lives in Oregon and I live in California, it's not ideal for starting a relationship so for now we are still getting to know each other and our friendship will continue to grow, if nothing else comes of it I have this new incredible friend that I will know for the rest of my life and that makes me very happy. Is this the end of our adventure.. no way.. not by far. I may not be blogging updates everyday like I have the past week but will continue to text and talk.. and who knows maybe he'll pop back up here or there in a future blog post.

Alien Nation Podcast 2nd Anniversary

Today is Alien Nation: The Newcomers Podcast 2nd anniversary. I released the first episode two years ago today. I stated this podcast because I wanted to work with my brother. We both loved Alien Nation and there wasn't another podcast like it.

It's not my most popular podcast by far. We get a few hundred downloads/listeners a month but what is great about this podcast is I get to do it with my brother. We have blast when we record together and our chemistry is undeniable.

Unfortunately December and January's podcasts have been postponed because of my move, but we should have a brand new one for the February 10th release date.

Thanks to all who have listened and continue to support this little podcast.

"Get Fit" Week 23

I'm still in the middle of all this moving crazies so I haven't been eating properly or working out on a regular bases. So I don't really have anything new to report. Last week I weighed in at 198 and today when I weighed myself I came in at 196. That's 2 pounds lighter then last week but I take it all with a grain of salt. I hope once I get everything moved into my new place and life gets back to normal.. well as normal as normal can be for me I will start back up on my eating and work out regime.

Moving In - Day 7, Internet & PGA

So this morning it hit me that I have been using alot of minutes talking to Erik everyday but even worse I have been using my data up on my phone because I don't have internet. So I checked both. I have only gone 9 days into this new billing cycle and I have already used 440 of my 550 minutes and I have used half of my 2gigs of data already. It will be interesting to see if I can make it another 21 days without going over.

And speaking of internet... I HAVE INTERNET!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So that should help with my data plan. And now that I have internet I can use skype to save on minutes for my phone.

Continued my storage runs. I did three today and I'm happy to say that I finished bringing all my boxes. I even started bringing small pieces of furniture. So all I have left are the big pieces of furniture and a ton of toy bins.

Today I walked to dinner. I love that I can just walk out my front door and walk to several food places. I also found out that the red line (subway) is about a 20 minute walk for me. I plan on taking advantage of that as much as possible.

When I got back to my apartment there was a document taped to our front door with the results of our recent building inspection we had a few days ago. Lot's of little minor things like toilet leaking or closet doors off it's hinges. And I'm happy to say that my apartment didn't have any issues... and that could be because they fixed everything to rent it out and the other apartment, those tenant have been there for years.

In geeky news.. I voted for the PGA (Producer's Guild of America) Awards. The ceremony will be held in January and I can attend thought it's fairly expensive for a ticket and I'd have to rent a tux.

Speaking of PGA I got another screener which is very unusual as I rarely get screeners in January as I mentioned above we vote towards the end of December and beginning of January. But I'm happy I got this movie. .. The Wolf of Wall Street.

I'm having blog issues today. I don't know what is going on but my main website page isn't showing my posts. It might just be a cookie issue with my computer as I asked friends out there to check it out and it seems to be working just fine for all of them... I'll be keeping an eye on it.

Now for an update on the Erik and Kenny "get to know you" adventure. We continue to text on and off all day long. But we did upgrade our phone conversations to a video skype call. We get to see each other now as we chat. It was a blast, we talked for about and hour and a half. Such a different experience video chatting compared to just audio chatting. Hopefully we can continue our video skype chats.

Moving In - Day 6, TWC, IKEA & Meatballs

I got up around 8ish this morning and jumped in the shower only to find out that there was no hot water. I guess I have to take my showers earlier if I want to enjoy the hot water. So needless to say it was a very cool and quick shower.

I headed over to the NoHo Diner. I really like their breakfast and today felt like a big full breakfast kind of day.

I did my first run at 10am and got back to my place around 11am. I didn't unload anything as I wanted to take a break.. I was particularly tired today. I was talking to my buddy Doug and he mentioned that if I ordered the cable and internet that it might already be active (the internet). So I figured I'd hook up everything and see what the deal was. Needless to say that I didn't expect to be dealing with this for the next seven hours.

I'm not going to give you a blow by blow detail account of the seven hours as I really don't want to have to relive it again. I'll just give you the highlights.

So I called to see if I could get my internet activated and give them the details of my new cable modem but they couldn't find my order that I submitted two days ago, even though I had gotten a conformation email. After a few hours and talking to four different people no one could really explain what happen to my order so I had to re-order the cable and internet again, and of course it was slightly more money then my original deal. This time instead of having a tech person come to me I was going to go do a local TWC center and pick up everything that I needed.

So I headed over and it was packed and I was there for about an hour. I got all the equipment that was required and headed back to my place. I hooked it all up as directed and still nothing. 3 more TWC people and several hours later still nothing until the final person said.. oh your service has been cut from the building (though several of the other people said that it was still active). She said a tech person will be out within 48 hours... so know I have to wait once again.

I was so drained after dealing with these people but I still had a car full of stuff that needed to be brought up so I once again unloaded the car (for the final time).

It's now about 8pm and I headed to IKEA to pick up the pieces for my pantry. I got the first piece but when I went to the second piece it wasn't what I thought it was.. it was actually attached to the top piece (I had thought they were two pieces). So I had to go with plan B and get two of the same bottom piece and one I would get a set of doors for and the other I would get folding boxes for to use as drawers.

While at IKEA I grabbed dinner and for the first time had their famous Swedish meatballs, which included some mash potatoes. I have to admit those were pretty amazing. I can't believe I've been coming to IKEA for years and had never tried them. I can see me going to IKEA just for dinner now.

Once home I was to tired to bring the boxes/pantry stuff up so I left it down in the car and came up to the apartment to relax.

Update on the Erik and Kenny adventure.. we continued to text during the day and once again chatted on the phone in the evening. We've talked everyday since we "officially" met four days ago. We continue to get to know each other better and our friendship continue to grow. He makes me smile.

Moving In - Day 5 & IKEA

So I was up super early today and started day five of traveling from storage to my new apartment. I'm tired of moving, I don't know why I thought it would be more leisurely if I moved over a week instead of a day or two. I won't make that mistake again.

But on this fifth day I can actually say that I'm making a dent in my storage rentals. Both of them are looking more and more sparse.. which is good.

I only managed to do two runs today before calling it quits for the day. Some days I can get three in but some days I can only manage two, like today.

After the move I went to IKEA to look for some sort of pantry. My kitchen is extremely small and have very little cabinet space. I barely fit all my kitchen stuff in to them but that left absolutely no place to put food. I walked around IKEA for about an hour and they didn't have quite what I wanted but I think I could combine two different items and make them work. I didn't purchase anything today but I have a good idea of what I want.

Day three of no internet... I'm getting the shakes. No blogging, no podcasting.. nothing. I'm kind of joking about getting the shakes but it's tough not having any TV or internet. I've been watching Frozen over and over again as I have it on in the background while I unpack things. But this no TV/Internet is killing me.

The Erik and Kenny adventure continues to move forward. We text on and off all day long. We also talked once again on the phone for a couple of hours during the evening. It still amazes me how much we are alike. I'm enjoying his company very much.

Moving In - Day 4, Tivo, Frozen & Siri

Today I got up and was excited as I was going to get some help today with moving. My buddy Brett was going to come over and help and then crash at my place tonight and help again tomorrow. Unforutnatly my luck with helpers is not good. And he too, like Jen yesterday was sick and had to cancel.. hopefully he'll feel better tomorrow.

So I am going solo once again. I did three trips back and fourth moving more of my stuff from storage to my new apartment. After the third run I was exhausted and called it a night.

I did take a break while moving and had brunch with my buddy Doug at this breakfast place that he has been telling me about for as long as I have known him. It was actually some very tasty breakfast. Afterwards we went to Best Buy as I needed to buy a Tivo and cable modem and Doug is really good at the techy stuff. I spent a few hundred dollars but I got the stuff I needed. Now I just need to set up my cable and internet but from all the horror stories I have heard about Time Warner Cable (and I have also experienced them in the past), I was not hopeful that this was going to be a piece of cake.

Later in the evening I headed down the block to Jen's to use her computer so I could sign up for cable and internet. Jen was still sick so I didn't stay long but I did order my stuff and a TWC tech person is going to come out on either Friday or Saturday.. so I will have to wait a week before I can get either of these things :(

So this is day two of no internet. I'm thankful for my phone but it's still not the same as my computer. I miss my internet.

On the Geeky side of things.. while out with Doug he told me about how if you ask Siri about "Her" she'll actually have four or five different responses. So if you have a iPhone, ask Siri if she is Her and see what she says... then ask again and see if  you get a different response... it's pretty awesome.

And Frozen is the number one movie in North America once again. It's extremely rare for a movie to be number one and then drop down the list and then regain the number one spot again. Honestly I'm not surprised as Frozen is really the only family friendly movie out there and it's pretty AMAZING on top of that!!! I've watched it over and over and over again.. but I still want to go see it on the big screen.. at least once.

As for the Erik and Kenny adventure, we are continuing our daily texting. We text throughout the day and tonight we chatted on the phone for over 3 hours... good times.

Moving In - Day 3

Got up early, had a much better sleep since I now have my air mattress once again. I am helping my friend Tamar move today but I wanted to try and get at least one trip in before then. So I headed up to storage (btw it's in Santa Claria, so it's a 30 minute drive). I loaded up everything and made my way back to my apartment. It took me a bit longer then I had planned to unload the stuff but I was only about 15 minutes late to Tamar's place. Robert and Tamar had already taken a load over to his new place so I met up with them there. I helped unload and we did a few more trips before Tamar was done with his move.

Afterwards Tamar took us out for lunch as a thank you. We grabbed Smashburger. I've only had Smashburger once when I was on a layover in Utah, but it's a very good burger place. I said my goodbyes and headed straight up to storage and loaded up more boxes.

When I got back home I gave my friend Jen a call as she mentioned that she might be able to help me unload (which really is the worst part of the move). She came over and we started to unload. Oh I should mention that Jen wasn't feeling that great earlier in the day but said she was doing better. Well after about five runs up and down the stairs she turned white and next thing I knew she was adding the inside content of her stomach to one of the recycle bins down in the garage. Needless to say she went home to crash. It took me about an hour to to finish and was spent.

I went over to 7-11 and picked up a pizza.. yes 7-11 now sells full size pizzas. I watched Frozen on my computer and ate pizza on the floor of my office before calling it a night.

The Erik and Kenny "getting to know each other adventure" continues...  Eric and I texted all day long. Just little things from time to time. We also went from texting to talking on the phone. We chatted for 2 1/2 hours straight... it was pretty amazing.

Also this is day one of no internet or TV.. so far so good... will see how long that lasts :)