More Sceeners & Shannara Chronicles Opening

Got three more sceeners today, Brooklyn, Legend and Love & Mercy. Only one I really want to see from this bunch is Brooklyn. It looks like a really sweet love story.

MTV released the opening sequence to their new TV series The Shannara Chronicles. It doesn't give anything away. I'm really looking forward to this new series.

NerdStrong Gym - My Week

This week I worked out Saturday (CON), Sunday (TEAM), Tuesday (DEX), and Wednesday (CON).

Saturday's workout was taking on the 20-Something Big Boss Monster. 

We started with 2 laps around the parking lot while holding a weight of some sort. Then 2 rounds of 50x Goblet Squats, :60 second Plank, 45x Kettlebell Sit Up, :60 second Plank, 40x Explosive Push Ups, :60 second Plank, 35x Kettlebell Reverse Lunges, :60 second Plank, 30x Facepeelers, :60 second Plank, 25x Wall Balls and finally another two laps around the parking lot for a weighted run.

I didn't finish it but I got further then before and I think I'm ready to take on the big bad boss monster next week.

Sunday's Team workout was in honor of Thanksgiving and titled Tur-Duc-Kin. This was a fun "Team" workout. We worked in teams of three and while one person ran 460 meters around the parking lot (two laps) the other person would choose workouts from Group 1 and the other would choose workouts from group 2. The purpose of this workout is to create the heaviest Turduckin. My teammates were Jess and Ryan and we managed to created a 525 lbs Turduckin.. we kicked some ass.

Tuesday's DEX workout was titled Ms Marvel.. it has lots of Jump Roping, Active Hanging, Planking, Push Ups, Superman, Sit Ups and Farmer's Carry. It was a tough but fun workout.

Wednesday's CON workout was lots of running and rowing and to finish it off we did a 5 minute Plank.  I actually lasted 3 minutes which is the longest I've every planked at one time. I think my favorite part of the workout was the 140 Meter Team Run Relay. I really like doing team activities together and I'm not a bad runner to it was win win for me.

As always it was a pretty fantastic week for workouts at NerdStrong Gym. Thanks to coach Andrew and all of the amazing coaches there.

It's Christmas Time

After the hike I came home and started to unpack all my Christmas decorations. Now that Thanksgiving is over and it's officially Christmas time I am going to decorate my apartment and put up my Christmas Tree.

Christmas is my favorite time a year and I love decorating my place. I started by putting up the tree. I've done live trees my entire childhood so when I started buying trees on my own I did live trees. That was until about six years ago when I came across a really nice looking fake tree. I was tired of having to clean up all the pines of a live tree as well as the idea of killing a tree for decoration every year.

I've collected some great and very geeky tree decorations (harry potter, star wars & star trek) over the years. I think my favorite find was my light up Yoda topper for the top of the tree.. it's pretty fantastic. I think the tree turned out great. I then added garland and bulbs over books cases and tables. I usually have small colored lights in the corner where the wall meets the ceiling but I opted not to do it this year.

Overall I'm very happy with the tree and decorations.. now I can enjoy the Christmas Holidays.

Hiking Eaton Canyon Falls

Since we didn't have gym yesterday or today due to the Thanksgiving holiday, my buddy Adam put together hike up in the hills of Pasadena. Joining for the was Adam, of course, Pooja, Lauren, and Adam's friends Kip and Gleen, which I just happened to know as well from game night I use to attend many many years ago (small world). Our main hike was to Eaton Canyon Falls, which is a fairly easy hike. So to make things a bit more difficult we hike up the  hills on a trail less traveled. It was a difficult hike as the trail pretty much went straight up, but the views from the top were amazing. Once we got to the top we made our way down the trail that most people used, it's a slow and steady incline or in our case going down.. a decline.

Once back at the main trail we made our way to the water fall. It required walking through flowing water and over large boulders. This was actually my favorite part of the hike. It was a popular trail so there was loads of people on it. But at the end of it is the small waterfall.. but a waterfall none the less. We sat on the rocks and snacked for a bit enjoying the ambiance. Once done we made our way back to the cars.

It was a great hike, it was beautiful outside, and the temps were just right. The company was great and we had some fairly in-depth geeky conversations.

After the hike Lauren and I grabbed some lunch at Rally's, before I dropped her off at her place and headed home.  Thanks Adam for organizing this fun adventure.

Happy Thanksgiving

Spent Thanksgiving with my brother's family as I have done in past years. This year as the kids are getting older (4 & 6) they wanted to help in preparing the turkey so I explained how you had to take out the giblets and neck and how to prepare it for the oven, they got a kick out of it. After we put the turkey in we played game, watched movies and just hung out until dinner time. Unlike previous Thanksgiving it was only my brother's family, Dad and myself for dinner.

We ate around 3pm and everything was fantastic. Around 5 my brother and sister-in-law went out for Black Friday so I got to watch the kiddos for a few hours before Lora's sister Wendy got there to watch them the remainder of the night. The highlight of my night was my niece Molly asking me to brush and braid her hair, she's such a sweetie. Overall it was another great Thanksgiving for the Mittleiders.

Captain America Trailer, Dawson's Creek Rewatch & More Star Wars

They released the first Captain America: Civil War trailer and it looks amazing. It's going to be difficult to watch these people who were once friends fight each other. But with that said I will always be #TeamCaptain

Was flipping through the channels and came across the series finale of Dawson's Creek. Of course I had to watch the entire thing.

I was a HUGE Dawson's Creek fan and have been wanting to do a rewatch of the entire series for a few years now. After watching the finale it reminded me why I want to do the rewatch. I don't know when I'll find the time but I'm thinking I'll do an episode or two a week.. it will take me a year to watch all six seaons but it's such a great a series and worthy of a rewatch.. anyone want to join me in the rewatch?

They also released another TV spot for Star Wars The Force Awakens. This one is more Kylo focused at the beginning. There is even more additional unseen footage but as they have done with the other trailers and TV spots.. nothing has been spoilery.

Birthday Lunch with John

Got some more screeners today.. Bridge of Spies, Steve Jobs and Jurassic World. I've seen Jurassic World and enjoyed it and I've heard good things about Bridge of Spies (with Tom Hanks) and Steve Jobs so I look forward to watching those.

During lunch today I took my buddy John out for his birthday. He's a big pizza guy so he suggested that we go to Pieology (it's a create your own pizza place). Never been before and I really enjoyed it, it's cool that you can make a pizza anyway you like.

I always enjoy hanging out with John. We workout together from time to time but you really can't socialize so getting some one on one time is pretty awesome. John is one of those people that you meet and it feels like you've known each other for years. Our lives couldn't be more opposite but personality wise I think we're more alike and of course we are both super geeky (okay I may be a bit more). Anyways.. Happy Birthday Buddy.. hope you had a fantastic birthday.

C3PO Waze, River Song, Legends, Galavant & Carter Returns

Waze released a C3PO direction voice for it's app so of course I had to download it. It's pretty awesome but it is kind of awkward having him call you master all the time. Not sure how long they will have it available but for now C3PO and his counterpart R2D2 will direct me to my destinations.

Got some more screeners today.. they seems to be rolling in now. This round I got The Walk, Trumbo and Beasts of No Nation. None of them are must sees for me but I'll give him a go at some point.

BBC announced that River Song will be returning to Doctor Who for the 2015 Christmas Special. I love River and her story in Doctor Who so I'm really looking forward to this.

DC released a new trailer for Legends of Tomorrow. The more I see of this series the more excited I got. DC has made some amazing TV (Arrow, Flash, & Supergirl) so I'm expecting great things from this series.

Also ABC released a trailer for season two of Galavant. When I first watched S1 of this series I was in love. It's so different then anything else on TV these days. It was only eight episode and I'll admit that not all of them were winners but people loved it and I'm happy to say they are coming back with a brand new, even longer season... can't wait.

And I think this is the series I am looking forward to the most.. the return of Agent Carter. I LOVED season one and was beyond excited to hear that it was picked up for season two..

Death of a Companion

So I watched last nights Doctor Who episode tonight, S9 Ep 10 "Face the Raven". The Doctor and Clara are called back to earth when Rigsy discovers a strange tattoo on the back of his neck that appears to be counting down to zero. Their investigation leads them to a hidden street in the middle of London, the discovery that Rigsy has been issued a death sentence, and one of them facing the choice of having to make the ultimate sacrifice; to face the Raven!

I've been enjoying this past season of Doctor Who, much more then the previous one. I knew that Jenna Coleman was going to leave the show at the end of the year so when things went down the way they did I knew this was it. It's difficult to watch a companion leave the show but this one is heart breaking as she did this to herself. Clara got to comfortable with the status quo, the duo had been in so many scraps but always managed to escape but this time she went to far and had to pay the price.

When she walks out to the street saying under her breath.. "Let me be brave.. let me be brace" my heart broke and the tears rolled down my face. I wasn't a big fan of Clara when she was teamed up with Matt Smith's Doctor but I adore her as the companion of Peter Capaldi's Doctor, so this was very difficult to watch.

I still think Donna Nobles departure from the series was the worst but Clara dying the way she did was pretty close.

Other highlights from this episodes.. Clara's final speech to the Doctor was amazing and very touching. The Doctor's rage towards Me was bone chilling and the final scene of the TARDIS made into a tribute for Clara.

We still have a two more episodes before the series is over, I know Clara is still going to show up as I have seen photos of Jenna in a waitress outfit but I have no idea in what context those are from.. guess will have to wait and see.

 ~ R.I.P. Clara Oswald ~