iPhone 5 & Weekend Fun

TGIF is all I was thinking today. It's been a long week and it's finally coming to an end. Also this weekend is another of my infamous weekend movie marathon parties... and I so can't wait for it.

I did manage to get my new iPhone 5 work, connected and looking great. Such a huge difference from the iPhone 3GS. I mean 4G alone is amazing. The screen is larger, the speed is much faster and the battery life is amazing. I'm slowly learning the phone. Still haven't played with Siri much so I look forward into delving into that more. I'm very happy that I went with he iPhone 5.

7pm came and I was out of work in a shot. I had to get home as I did have people coming over early (as it's become a tradition). So I needed to be there when they arrived. I made it home, ate dinner and had a half hour to relax before my first guest arrived. Aaron came at 8:30 sharp which is amazing since he drives from San Diego and traffic is always unpredictable. Not long after Rupert, Brett, Michele, Anthony and finally Robert arrived. We played some Cards Against Humanity (it's are go to game now) and then sat around the fireplace for about 2 hours just relaxing, talking and enjoying ones company. It was a great way to end what was a very stressful week. And a great way to start what will be an awesome weekend.

Bros Bros and More Bros

I had the honor of having lunch today with my buddy Will. Will and I don't get to hang out as much as we would like but the time we do spend together is very important to me. Today he came to my work, parked and we walked up with the hill to Universal City Walk. When we got there we decided to have lunch at Hard Rock Cafe. It was another fun get together. We chatted about work, life and our usual stuff. Will has always felt like a little brother to me. I've always been there to listen to and offer advice on various things happening in his life. And though many years have past we still have that kind of relationship and I'm so thankful.

After work today I headed over to my buddy Robert's place. We are continuing our Buffy rewatch/ 1st time watching. Unlike Will I haven't known Robert for that long but from the moment we met I felt as if I have known him my entire life. We have become the best of friends and I love hanging with him. Of all my "close" friend Robert is the one I hang with the most. Today we were having Italian for dinner and continuing with Season four of Buffy. We watched three episodes tonight, starting with Fear Itself. Fun episode, great ending and fun to see a different side to Giles. Our second episode was Beer Bad. This is unanimously considered the worst Buffy episode ever. I don't think it's the best and maybe it's low on the list of rewatch for me but even Buffy's worse is still 100 times better then other TV shows. Our final episode for the evening was Wild at Heart. This was the end of the Oz and Willow relationship. I love Oz but I'm happy to see him go as that means we will be seeing Tara (who I love). It was a great episode to end the night with.

It was nice to get a break from the crazies that is my job to have lunch with Will and then to decompress and hang with Robert after a long day of work. Bros are the best.

Mistaken Identity

At work we have to valet our cars as parking is in short supply and they normally stack the cars. I got off work today and headed over to the Valet area and they were super busy. There were two of them and they were running around. The parking was the worst I had ever seen. I waited about five minutes and the guy finally came over to me and I gave him my ticket. The night guy never brings my car around he always just hands me my ticket and then I go search for my car (luckily they park it in the same general area). Well today it was in the same area but it was blocked in. I walked back over to the valet station and as I was standing there a group of older woman came out of the restaurant next door (who also uses the valet parking). This blonde white woman (looked very well off), approached me with a $20 and said in a very loud and slow tone. "Do you have change for a, $20 your friend is pulling my car around and I want to give you guys a great tip." I looked at her, smiled and said "I'm sorry but I don't work for the valet" in perfect English of course. You could tell she was embarrassed and I really didn't take offense to it until she said "Well it's an honest mistake... I mean you have keys in your hand and your..."she didn't finished the sentence and kind of laughed and walked over to her friends as their car was being pulled around. It was a very strange experience.

New Credit Card

So I've been wanting to do this for a while,  My friend Sebastian, uses nothing but a credit card to pay for everything and get's cash back/points for every purchase. Since my best friend lives in Montana I thought it would be cool to get a credit card that I could do the same.. but instead of cash back I get points towards air miles. I bank with Bank of America and while on their site I noticed an ad for a credit card for travel miles. Now with most of these kinds of credit cards you have to pay a yearly fee, but this one you did not. Of course you're not getting huge amounts of point per dollar but I liked what I saw and signed up. I was approved in minutes and a few days later I got the credit card. I have been using it for everything since. If I spend $500 within 90 days I'll get an extra 10,000 points = $100. So I figure I'll get $1 for every 100 points. I get 1.5 points per dollar spent. Like I said it's not huge but any amount will help when it come to buying airline tickets. I'm going to try and pay for everything via the card and get the most out of the points I can. 

Hard Drive Woes

Since my hard drive crashed last month I have been slowly realizing the extent of what was lost. It was my main external hard drive, especially for my podcasts. But I'm not realizing how much I've actually lost until I go looking for something and can't find it. Today I was trying to finish up my next MASH 4077 podcast. All I have left to do is add audio from the episodes. I realized that I lost all my electronic versions of MASH episodes as they were on that drive so I no longer have any audio for the episodes. I don't even have the episodes on DVD (those went with Harry).. so what to do in a pinch.. I tried to find the episode of MASH I'm currently working on online and did manage to get it but it's a version with the audio laugh track and it's so distracting and horrible that I decided to stop editing. Figured I'll take a few days to try and find a cleaner version. I hope I can but if not I'll use the one with the laugh track. At least it's only this one episode. If I have to I'll go out and buy the entire series on DVD.

Movie Marathon Weekends Return

So I haven't had an official movie marathon weekend since May of 2012... wow it's been a long time. I did have a rather large party for my 42nd Birthday in September and again a much smaller party for my 2012 Christmas party. But after this long break.. I've decided to have another movie marathon. This time we are watching all things Superman.

The reason I am writing this blog is because this event is going to be my smallest yet. I only invited 10 or so people. So alot of my friends did not get invited to this one. I had to be super selective and it was tough. I don't want folks to think that I am trying to keep this a secret.. I mean I blog, tweet and facebook too much to keep things a secret. So if you were not invited to this one please don't take it personally.. it doesn't mean we are not friends.

As I have mentioned several times on my blog, back in September for my Birthday weekend things kind of got out of hand and from that point on I swore off doing any more movie marathons or parties for that matter. But I miss everyone and I enjoy those weekends so much that I'm starting them back up.. but on a much smaller scale.

I'm sorry if you feel left out or that we are not good enough friends to be invited to this event, neither is done on purpose. I wish I could invite every one of you but my house and my nerves can't take it.

I'm going to continue to have these smaller parties and will continue to rotate my invited friends so everyone can enjoy the hospitalizes of Casa De Kenny.

And for those I'm not seeing this coming weekend I hope we get to hangout at Wondercon next month.

Podcasts, Taxes, Dinner and Snow

Today I had to go in and sign my tax forms, but my tax place didn't open until 10am. So I let work know that I was going to be coming in a bit later then usual. Lucky for me my tax place is in Burbank which isn't far from my job. So I had some time to kill as I got up at my regular time of 6:30am. I struggled to get out of bed and go do my cardio, but I did. Afterwards I had a few hours to kill so I started editing my next MASH 4077 Podcast. I actually got pretty far along before I had to head out to my tax guy.

Got to my tax place at 10, went in and singed the papers, paid for their service and headed into work. I got into work around 10:30am which is about an hour later then I usual get in. Work was crazy as expected but as I mentioned in a recent blog, I'm just going with the flow. I did have one funny thing happen to me while I was at lunch. I walk to local places for lunch and today I went to Carl's Jr. Went I exited the building I notice that the ground was wet, it had rained. I did not bring my umbrella to work today as it wasn't rainy near me. I took my chance and walked about 15 minutes to Carls. I made it there nice a dry. I ordered my food, sat down and started eating when I noticed that folks were coming in with umbrellas and they looked wet. Sure enough it was raining and hard. I was almost done with food and didn't have clue how I was going to get back to work unsoaked. I waited an extra twenty minutes and when it looked like it had died down I made a run for work.. well I didn't actually run. I did walk a bit faster and it did start to rain a bit but I made it back to my office fairly dry.

After work I had dinner with my long long friend, Craig. We haven't seen each other for over five years. We've talked here and there but this was the first time we've seen each other in a long time. It was great seeing him and catching up on his life. He has some health issues and recently had a double stroke four days apart. Luckily he had recovered and doing well. We plan to hang out more often. He has rats as pets, and I used to have rats as pets and love them. He introduced me to two new little girls that he got and I am now considering getting some rats to keep me company.

It has been raining on and off all day at work so when I got home I expect there to be snow and sure enough.. there was. It wasn't alot as it just got cold enough for the rain to turn to snow. I expect that I'll wake up to a snowy winter land. The downside is that Fedex left a package on my doorstep. This package was covered in snow and ice when I got home and was soaked through and through. It was my new iPhone 5 and luckily for me the iPhone is sealed in plastic so only the paperwork was wet. I can't wait to get my phone charged and operational.

Knights of the Guild Ep 47

Download from itunes: bit.ly/KotGCast, Stitcher Radio ow.ly/hEXjY or Listen, get direct download bit.ly/2CrYxk 

 

Show Notes:

.

This episode I sit down with Felicia Day and talk about the creation of season six as well as episode one.

Enjoy,

~Kenny~

Working Out and Podcasts

So I started working out again this morning. It was freezing and I didn't want to get out of bed, but I did. I'm only doing cardio at the moment and after a few weeks I'll start weight training again. I'm also determined to drink 2 liters of water everyday. I rarely drink water and really need to force myself to drink more. Let's hope I can continue this so I can lose this unwanted weight.

I wish every drive to work was as empty as it was today. That's one good thing about working on a holiday.. Traffic is normally very light.

When I got home from work today I was determined to edit a new episode of Knights of the Guild. I have been really slacking when it has come to Knights of the Guild podcast. Part of me was disappointed that I wasn't able to create companioncasts for season six like I had done in the past. But with my work schedule at the time and the availability of the cast members I wasn't able to get as many interviews as I was hoping. I tried to set up interviews afterwards but everyone is so busy. So I decided that I'll just do regular episodes and sprinkle interviews that I did get with cast members throughout. I hope to release two episodes of month.. but right now I'm struggling to just get one out. So I got home around 8pm, ate dinner and then jumped on the avid. I edited for four hours and finally finished a new episode. I immediately uploaded it to podbean but didn't post anything about it since it was so late.

I was very tired but also very happy that I finally got a new episode done.

It's All About Family

Today was spent with my family, more specifically my Dad, Brother, Sister-in-law, Nephew and Niece. They live out in Riverside and it takes me about an hour and 45 minutes to get there so I don't see them as much as I would like to but I try and get down there twice a month. Family has always been super important to me and I really want to be a presence in my niece and nephews lives. I want to be their favorite uncle and look forward to my visits.

I was excited because today I got to show off my new car to the family. Dad really liked it... I got to have lunch with my Dad at my favorite Chinese restaurant, Hong Kong. Then I got to play Xbox Wipeout with my nephew Kenobi, while visiting Bro, sis-in-law and baby Molly... it was some good times.

I left around 4pm, got home close to 6, watched some TV and finished off my weekend with some LOTRO. Not a bad way to end a busy weekend.

Busy Saturday

Today was a busy day.. first thing I did this morning was get online with a group of friends and try and get San Diego Comic Con tickets for some other friends. I mean I already have my own tickets but I wanted to help out some of those who didn't get them last time. It was kind of crazy but in the end we got tickets for everyone who was online and needed them. I manage to get four tickets for friends. I can't wait for this years Comic Con

Lord of the Rings Online is back up!!! Wooohooo!!!! I played for a few hours.. it was bliss.

I've been debating on getting the new iPhone 5 for a while now. I have been eligible for an upgrade from AT&T for almost a year. The only thing holding me back was the new charger. I hate that they changed it over to the smaller connector. I like having many connectors (home, car, work) and now not only do I have to get a new phone I have to buy new connectors. I did consider getting a 4 or 4s as my phone is a 3gs. The 4 16gigs was .99 cent, and the 4s 16gigs was $99. I knew both of those would have been an upgrade from what I have but there was something that kept telling me to go for the 5. I chatted online with my buddy Chris to get his input. We talked it over and I figured I'll be getting the new iPad when it comes out and I'm sure it will also have the new connector so I went online and ordered the new iPhone 5. Now my next dilemma was which one to get, 16gigs, 32gigs or 64gigs. Since I was signing a 2 year agreement I was getting $450 off the phone, which meant I would pay either $199, $299 or $399. I don't use my phone to watch video, I hate watching on the small screen and my current phone is only 8gigs and I've never filled it up so I opted for the 16gigs for $199. I can't wait to get the new phone. Should have early next week.

So I got my insurance paperwork on my new car today. I have Lojack and was told that I would be getting a discount because of that. Well I was shocked at the amount that was taken off my insurance premium because of the Lojack. It was a whopping four dollars a year.. yeah four dollars. I think it cost me more to fill out the form and email it to them. I couldn't believe it. I first thought it was a joke, I mean a $4 discount is nothing and the cost of the Lojack was much much more. But no that is the discount that my insurance company offers. I may be on the lookout for a new insurance company.

I made some cupcakes for a housewarming party I was to attend later in the evening. I mixed two different cake mixes to make Dark Chocolate and Strawberry Swirl cupcakes. I think they turned out very tasty.

Speaking of House warming party I headed out around 4:30pm, I had a few errands to run beforehand. The house party was for my friends Dallas and Jes. I helped them move in a few weeks ago and was looking forward to checking out there place all set up. It was a fun party, they had an Avengers theme. They had masked and we played Ironman, Ironman2, Thor and Captain America in the background. We had yummy snacks, played a game of Cards Against Humanity. Got to hang out with some friends I haven't seen in a while. It was a fun night. Said my goodbyes around midnight and headed home.  You can check out pictures from the party HERE

It was a busy but fun day off.

Meteors, Miles & MMO's

Today I woke up to news that a large meteor hit the Earth's atmosphere over a part of Russia and exploded which caused several sonic booms/explosions that blew out doors and windows. Over 1000 people hurt. And of course in today's age there is a ton of video of it. I spent about an hour watching video after video. Some of the video was just the meteor burning up in the atmosphere causing a very bright light show. But then there were several videos of the explosion sound that set off car alarms and shattered windows. I even found a video of two people in an office when the window exploded next to the guy and force of the explosion through him across the room. These videos are amazing to watch but also very scary.  I mean meteors are always hitting earth but normally they are small enough that they burn up on entry. This one was said to be the size of a small apartment building.

And speaking of meteors we had another one, pass by the Earth. This one was HUGE and luckily it didn't hit us, but it did get closer then any other large meteor has in the past. It actually was closer then the orbit of our own satellites. I watched the live feed as this chunk of rock skipped off our atmosphere and drifted harmlessly into space.

Neither of these incidents were related, but it does make you think about the fact that we are flying through space at a very fast pace with tons of debris hitting us. One day we might not be so lucky.

After only 12 days I have already passed the 1000 miles mark on my odometer. I knew I would put some miles on this new car. That's one reason why I got a very good fuel economy vehicle. Average is said to be 1000 to 1200 miles a month.. I'm hoping to keep mine to 2000 a month.

Lord of the Rings Online MMO is still down :(. It was suppose to be down for only 24 hours for maintenance but it's not going on 48 hours... guess they have been running into problems. I hope they get it back up soon.. I'm really starting to miss it.

MASH 4077 Podcast Episode 48

Download from Itunes - tinyurl.com/MASH4077itunes, Stitcher Radio ow.ly/hEZUg or listen/ direct download 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 #24 - A Smattering of Intelligence

48th Episode Overall
Directed by Larry Gelbart
Written by Larry Gelbart & Laurence Marks
Production code K424
Original air date March 2, 1974

Set during the Korean War in the 1950’s

Plot Summary: After a helicopter crash at the 4077 Mobile Army Surgical Hospital the only casualty is the infamous LTC Flagg who is laid up at the 4077th with a broken arm. He reveals that he suspects a security leak in the camp and will be investigating, presenting LTC Henry Blake with a number of aliases and demanding his full cooperation. Meanwhile, Hawkeye and Trapper John meet Trapper's friend Captain Pratt, who is an Army Intelligence officer. Pratt is undercover at the hospital to see what Flagg is up to, claiming Flagg had ordered the helicopter to crash and then broke his own arm in order to "infiltrate" the 4077th. Pratt explains his presence in the camp to Frank Burns by saying that the US Army Engineers are thinking of making MASHs amphibious; Frank reveals his naivete by believing Pratt's story. Pratt also blackmails Henry into cooperating with him. Soon the two spies are after each other, and Hawkeye and Trapper John decide to have some fun by tricking both spies into going after Major Frank Burns, making Pratt believe Burns is a right-wing fascist and making Flagg believe Burns is a left-wing communist.

Hope you enjoy it, Kenny,

My Valentine

Today after work I was going to meet up with my buddy Robert for dinner. Last week Robert asked if I wanted to go out for dinner on Valentine, since we are both single... and of course I said yes.

Valentine's doesn't really effect me much. I mean it's nice to have someone you can share the holiday with but honestly everyday should be valentine's day. Anyways, I got off work at 7pm and headed up the hill to Universal City Walk. Robert was running late due to really bad traffic so I sat in front of the restaurant and people watched. It was tough just sitting there watching all these folks walking by holding hands and kissing.

I have my bouts of loneliness here and there but seeing all these people in Love really got to me. It really made me miss being in Love. It's been over two years since Harry and I broke up and I haven't gone out on a date or been with anyone since.

Well Robert arrived about an hour late and we made our way into the restaurant. Robert really wanted steak so I suggested Tony Roma's. We were seated fairly quickly and were given menus. Of course they were the Valentine "special" menus. I asked if they had their full menus but sadly they did not.

Robert and I spent the next hour enjoying the food and the company. Of course we talked about relationships, work and other geeky things. When we were done we walked over to the movie theater as we wanted to see "Warm Bodies" but the next showing was at 9:50pm and we would be getting out until after midnight. We both leave a half hour to forty five minutes away so it would be a rough morning for work if we did that. So instead we went over to Jillian's to play some video games. But once we were there we found out that you had to purchase a game card, then you could go get tokens for the machines. It was to much of a hassle so we just walked from one end of Citywalk to the other before going up to the food court area and sitting down and just chatting for an hour or so. Around 10:30 we said our goodbyes and I headed home.

It was a fun evening of good food and great company... it was the perfect Bro-Valentine

LOTRO is Down!!!!

So today at 6am EST Lord of the Rings Online went down for a 24 hour maintenance fix. I normally play a little bit before I drive into work (half hour to an hour), and a bit on my lunch if I'm lucky (half hour max) and then when I get home (hour or two).

When I woke up this morning I remembered that the game would be offline and I took it in stride. I told myself that I could handle not playing for the day. I mean I just started playing in December, how hard would it be to stop for the day. Well it's a lot harder then I would have ever expected. Lucky for me it was a really busy day at work so it took my mind off not being able to play... for the most part.

Now I don't know if you can call them withdrawal symptoms but I really missed playing. I miss quickly jumping on and mining for ore for a half hour. I miss immersing myself into Middle Earth. It's crazy.. it's only been 12 hours since I stopped playing the previous night, but I am really missing it.

I knew when I started playing, that I would get addicted to this game. That is why I never started World of Warcraft. But would I call myself an obsessed?? No not really...I mean I still sleep seven hours a night. I come to work for 10 hours and do my job, yes I might play on my break and I do tend to jump on for a few hours at night, but not every night, as I mentioned in previous blogs, playing the game is a great way for me to relieve stress.

I did discover that Lord of the Rings Online has an official tweeter account @LOTRO. For the downtime they did trivia and gave away "in game" points. I answered all the questions correctly but alas I did not win any points.

Lucky for me I have dinner plans today.. so hopefully that will keep my mind off of playing LOTRO.

Work Update

So my job is still an up and down adventure. Just when I think I have everything under control and running smoothly, something happens and everything is turned on it's head. I've decided to not freak out, to take it a day at a time. I mean in the end it's just a job and not worth getting tightness in the chest or stressing out over. Of course I am me so I will continue to stress out but I'm going to constantly be telling myself to calm down, it's not life or death, just breath.

I've worked in the entertainment industry for over 18 years. I know all the BS and stress that goes along with it. Yes I am tired of it but for now I have to accept it and continue moving forward until the opportunity of change is presented to me... let's just hope it's sooner then later :)

Tonight I was at work from 9am to 9pm, it was the longest I have been here since starting this new job... and to be honest 12 hours isn't that bad compared to some of my past jobs. As long as 12 hour shifts aren't the norm I think I'll be okay.

I'll still complain here and there but I am very happy to be employed and I'll stick with this job until they see otherwise.

Lucky for me I find my Lord of the Rings Online MMO playing a great stress reliever.

Stitcher Radio Approved!!

So I got an email today informing me that all five of my podcasts have been added to Stitcher Radio. I'm hoping with this extra platform it will bring more exposure to my podcasts.

Stitcher is an app that you download to your mobile device. It's similar to itunes. You can also listen directly from the website.. just follow the links below.

You can check out all my podcasts at app.stitcher.com Just type in Geekyfanboy in the search box.

Here are the direct links to each of my shows.

My Gimpy Life Podcast  ow.ly/hF0he

Knights of the Guild podcast ow.ly/hEXjY

MASH 4077 Podcast ow.ly/hEZUg

Alien Nation: The Newcomers Podcast ow.ly/hF04B

Confessions of a Fanboy Podcast http://ow.ly/hF0xk

Thin Mints Are The Best

This is a great way to start my week. I'm a huge fan of Girl Scout Cookies.. especially Thin Mints. One of the editors here at work has a daughter who is selling them and today is the day that they came in. I got five boxes for myself and then two more for my buddy Robert. I really need to find some self control as I ate an entire package (16 cookies) in one day... not good. I plan on freezing some and making them last for at least a few months.

Another Lazy Sunday... kind of

Woke up today determined to finish my next MASH 4077 podcast. I was up early around 7am and I jumped right in. As I was doing my podcast I started doing laundry. It has built up over the past month or so. You think having a washer and dryer in my house I would do it more often.. but no that's not the case. While editing my buddy Chris popped online and I mentioned playing some Lord of the Rings Online as we haven't been able to play together for a few weeks. Of course he was all for it so we planned to play a little after I finished my MASH podcast.

A few hours into editing and on my second load of laundry my washer started making some crazy beeping sounds. I went to check it out and my clothes were sitting in a foot of water and the machine is not running. Yeah my washer is broken. There are a ton of dirty closes all over the laundry room and kitchen, I only manage to get one load done which was currently drying in the drier. I didn't have time to play around with it so I left it for the time being and went back to editing my podcast.

I finished around 12:30pm and uploaded it to podbean.. MASH 4077 #48 is now ready to be released on February 15th.

I told Chris I was ready for some LOTRO and started up the game. We played about three hours when I realized was a starving, my computer also decided to stop working so we took a break. I grabbed some food and also pulled my wet clothes out of my broke washer.

Played for another four hours for a total of seven hours.. it was fantastic. As I have mentioned playing LOTRO is a great stress reliever. And playing with my best friend in a world that I adore is nothing but win win.

Afterwards I made some dinner, I also rung out all my wet clothes enough so that I could put them in the drier.

Finished the night by watching a bit of TV. Got a podcasts done and played one of my favorite games with one of my favorite people... yeah it was a good Sunday.

Alien Nation: The Newcomers Podcast Ep13

Download from itunes bit.ly/itunesAlienNation or  Listen, get a Direct Download Aliennationpodcast.com 

Show Notes

Brothers Kenny and Michael Mittleider review and discuss a short lived but very socially aware TV series from the late 80's early 90's ALIEN NATION. Each podcast we will review a single episode in sequential order starting with the Pilot. Will give you our thoughts on the episode as well as some fun behind the scenes information.

Today we cover Season 1, Episode 13 - Spirit Of '95
Directed by Harry Longstreet
Written by Tom Chehak
Original air date January 15th 1990

Plot Summary: Susan and Buck decide to become heavily involved in politics, as an amendment to the constitution which guarantees equal rights for Newcomers is soon to be voted on throughout the land.

A series of attacks is launched on campaign headquarters and important Newcomers are involved in the ongoing struggle, resulting in a growing sympathy for the Tenctonese. Everyone blames the Purists, but Sikes and George aren't so easily convinced. In the meantime, Sikes, who has been drafted as the leader of his building's tenant association, learns of the necessity of the democratic system, even on such a basic level.

Hope you enjoy it,
Kenny & Michael