Memorial Day BBQ & More Buffy

Stayed over at Robert's place, so we woke up, got ready for the day and headed out to breakfast at IHop . Once breakfast was over we headed to my mom's down in Newport Beach. This was going to be the first time that my buddy Robert got to meet my Mom and family.

Robert and I got there first, then my brother Michael, sister-in-law Lora, nephew Kenobi and niece Molly arrived. Then my aunt Joyce, uncle Marty and their kids Austin and Matt and finally my grandma. Also Lora's moms Vicky and Debbie joined us.

My mom lives on Balboa Island. They live on the water and have a nice deck and dock with several boats. So we hung outside on the deck and dock. Some folks went swimming in the harbor, some just hung out on the deck and talked. We snacked on smoked sausages and chips. For lunch we had BBQ hamburgers and hotdogs. My aunt Joyce made this incredible strawberry whip cream cake thing that was just the best.. plan on making it in the future.

Several family members went out on the smaller boat (Whaler). We had planned to go out on one of Chuck's sailing yachts. But as the day winded down it didn't look like that was going to happen.. so instead Robert and I took the small whaler boat out. My mom's house is about a 35 minute boat ride in the harbor until you get to the ocean. It was fun out on the water with Robert. Once we got to the ocean I wanted to take Robert to the "seal hotel" (buoy) just outside the harbor in the pacific ocean. The waves were pretty big and the whaler was being tossed all over the place. Robert was having a blast watching me panic as I was trying to keep control of the boat. Once we saw the seal hotel we headed back in. The return trip was interesting as several times I had thought I had taken the wrong path but in the end we did manage to find out way home. Now the fun began. Trying to bring the boat in between one of Chuck's sailing boats and the neighbors dock. I tried three or four times but couldn't do it. Robert was literally rolling on the floor of the boat laughing while I tried to dock the boat over and over again. Finally my brother came down to the dock and helped me out.

We hung out for another hour or so before we called it a day. We had planned to stop by Disneyland on our way home but we were tired from being out in the hot sun all day, we decided to head back to Robert's place, grab some dinner and watch some Buffy.

We ordered some Bossa Nova and had it delivered to Rob's place. We continued our Buffy Rewatch / 1st Time. First up was S6 Ep 21 "Two to Go" After flaying Warren alive, Dark Willow turns to Jonathan and Andrew—who are still in jail—while Buffy, Xander, and Anya rush to the Sunnydale police station to protect them and try to stop Willow. Dawn convinces Clem to take her to Rack's in order to find Willow. Turns out Willow is already there, has murdered Rack and absorbed his magic in order to become more powerful. After leaving Andrew and Jonathan safe at the Magic Box, Buffy finds Dawn at Rack's with Willow and a fight ensues. Magically, the fight ends up at the Magic Box. Giles appears, to stop Dark Willow.

As I mentioned in my last blog post about Buffy... these final four episodes are some of my favorite Buffy of all time. So I enjoyed this episode alot. Again it's so much fun watching this with Robert who's never seen any of them as he's having the same reactions that I had when I first saw them. When Giles showed up at the very end Robert almost did an air fist pump.. Giles is one of his favorites and it was so EPIC when he shows up and knocks Dark Willow back.

Then the final episode of Season 6 Ep 22 "Grave" Dark Willow defeats Giles and decides to end her suffering and the world's by bringing on an apocalypse.

Not the most amazing finale but a good ending to the whole Dark Willow storyline. Though I'm not a big Xander fan it was cool that he was the one who stopped the end of the world. Buffy had no real part in stopping it.

We then started the final season of Buffy.. Season Seven Ep 1 "Lessons" Dawn finds vengeful spirits in the new Sunnydale High School. Giles helps with Willow's rehabilitation in England. Love crazy Spike...

Not a bad start the final season. I love that they are back at Sunnydale High School and that Buffy is working there now. I'm glad Dawn is now part of the Scoobie gang and learning to fight like her sister.

And the final episode of the night S7 Ep2 "Beneath You" The Scoobies find that Anya has cursed the ex-boyfriend of a woman who wished he was a worm. Buffy learns that Spike has gotten his soul back.

Wasn't a big fan of the main storyline with Anya and the worm creature... but I did like the entire Spike crazy storyline and "something" taking the forms of past enemies and even the Slayer herself.

Got to spend a day and a half with my best friend and it was awesome. Said our good nights and I headed home... it was a very fun day. Robert got along with my family and they loved him.. which of course I knew they would.

Star Trek, Buffy & Chocolate Wine

My buddy Aaron crashed at my place last night after our day at Magic Mountain. So today we got up, had some breakfast and then started to watch a Star Trek special on The History Channel. We only watched an hour of the 2 hour special.. it was all about the new rebooted Star Trek. Around 11am Aaron went into town to get a haircut and I was going to join him around noon to grab some lunch and then go to the movies.

So I meet up with him at Baja Fresh and we grabbed some lunch... next door to Baja is the theater and we wanted to see Star Trek Into Darkness. This would be my second time and I was super excited to see it again. Afterwards I came to the conclusion that this movie is my favorite of the new Star Trek. I laughed, cried and was on the edge of my seat the entire time.. even though I had already seen it. I love Cumberbatch, he's such an amazing actor. I love everything about this movie and I can't wait to see it again.. but next time it will be in IMAX 3D.

After the movie I headed to my buddy Robert's house for an unscheduled Buffy and Bros night. While we watched I got to try some Chocolate Wine.. I never heard of such a thing but it was extremely tasty.

First episode of the night was S6 Ep 15 "As You Were" Riley returns to town with his new wife Sam. He enlists Buffy's help in tracking down a demon black market dealer known as "The Doctor". It turns out that "The Doctor" is actually Spike. Riley finds out about Buffy and Spike's affair. Buffy ends things with Spike.

I like this episode, it was a nice resolution to the whole Riley thing. And Buffy finally breaks things off with Spike (after Riley finds them together). 

Next was S6 Ep 16 "Hell's Bells" Xander and Anya's wedding day finally arrives, but a surprise visitor makes Xander have second thoughts.

A fun episode, you feel bad for Anya and Xander is just a jerk. I have never been a big fan of Xander and this episode didn't do him any favors. 

Then it was time for S6 Ep 17 "Normal Again" The Trio unleash a demon whose powers make Buffy believe that she is in a mental institution and that Sunnydale—and all her friends and adventures—have just been figments of her imagination. Eventually Buffy attacks her friends, locks them in her basement, and unleashes the same demon on them. Tara eventually finds them and Buffy recovers from the demon's poison by drinking the antidote.

Love this episode.. one of the coolest stories of the season. At the end it really makes you think, is this world that we know all in Buffy's head.. is Buffy really in a asylum... good stuff.

Next up was S6 Ep 18 "Entropy" Anya seeks vengeance on Xander and finds comfort with Spike. Willow and Tara arrange a date.

Another good episode, Anya is back and she's pissed. I liked how she is trying to get all of Xander's friends to wish him ill will so she can curse him. I also liked seeing Willow and Tara getting back together. 

And finally one I was really looking forward to S6 Ep 19 "Seeing Red" Tara and Willow cuddle in bed after their reconciliation. Meanwhile, The Trio steal the Orbs of Nezzla'Khan, which grant their owner strength and invulnerability.
 
Buffy has to stop Spike from raping her; horrified by his own actions, Spike leaves Sunnydale. Buffy confronts The Trio in mid-robbery, and renders Warren powerless by smashing his orbs. Warren escapes, leaving Andrew and Jonathan behind to face the police.

Warren returns the next day with a gun. He shoots Buffy, and a stray bullet into the upstairs window kills Tara. Xander frantically tries to stop Buffy's bleeding while Tara lies dead in Willow's arms. Willow's face is contorted by pain and shock, blood splattered all over her, eyes glowing deep red.

This is the episode I have been waiting for.. I mean the first 40 minutes is good, nothing to special but the last few minutes is so EPIC. I remember watching this for the first time and just being stunned. Of course back then I had to wait a week for the next episode.. nowadays you just select the next episode on Netflix. I love that Robert had the same reaction I had 10 years ago when I first saw this. It's such a jaw dropping, OMG, moment.

And our final episode of the evening S6 Ep 20 "Villains" In the aftermath of the vengeful Warren's assassination attempt, Buffy tries to recover from a severe gunshot wound, while Tara is also hit and dies. Willow, consumed by wrath and rage over Tara's murder, consumes herself with deadly black magic from the Magic Box which physically transforms her into a dark being. "Dark Willow" then magically heals Buffy, and then goes out seeking to kill the murderous Warren. Jonathan and Andrew share a jail cell while they debate their next move. Warren, aware that Willow is after him, seeks allies at a demon bar and approaches junkie warlock Rack for help, while Buffy, Xander, and Dawn grieve after they learn of Tara's death as well as finding out that Anya has returned to being a Vengeance demon. Spike travels to a remote African village where he asks a mysterious cave dwelling demon to make him his former self.

Like the previous episode this is a continuation of the last 10 minutes of the previous episode. Dark Willow is awesome..  she plays a really good big bad. What she does to Warren is terrifying. I remember when I first saw it I was shocked.. just for the fact that Willow would do that but that they would show that on TV. These last few episodes are what I have been looking forward to this entire season.. can't wait to see the final two.

Afterwards I crashed at Robert's place since we were both driving down to my Mom's for a Memorial Day BBQ.  It was a really good day.. got to spend the day with good friends (Aaron and Robert) and watched some of the best geeky movie/show around (Star Trek and Buffy).. oh and I got to drink some tasty Chocolate Wine.. it was a good day.

Celebrating a Birthday

Today I spent the majority of the day at Magic Mountain to celebrate my friend Courtney's birthday. Got there around 10am and my buddy Aaron was already there but the rest of our friends, including Courtney were not getting in until later so he and I started to ride some roller coasters. The rest of the gang arrived and hour later, Courtney, Jessica and three of their friends (Shannon, Joe and Cheyenne).

It sill took another two hours to hook up with them as Aaron and I would be on a ride and then they would go on a ride and we would eat and then they would eat.. we finally hooked up and started to ride roller coasters together. It was a fun day, at first I thought it was going to super busy as it was a Saturday on Memorial Day weekend and the crowds were there but come to find out that Hurricane Harbor was opening today which is right next to Six Flags and I'm happy to say that the majority of the crowds went there. I think the longest line we had was just under an hour.

Another fun day at Magic Mountain.. Happy Birthday Courtney!!

Star Wars, Geek & Towel Days Rolled Into One

Today is a very special day in the Geek/Nerd world. It's the 36th Anniversary of the release of Star Wars which in turn created Geek Pride Day and it is also International Towel Day, for all you fans of The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy,

36 years ago today I went and saw a movie that would forever change my life. I credit Star Wars (and no I'm not calling it A New Hope, because when I saw it 36 years ago it was called just Star Wars) anyways I credit Star Wars for making me the Sci Fi / Fantasy lover I am today and that series will always hold a very special place in my heart. It will always be part of my life and I am forever thankful to George Lucas for the world that sprung from his imagination.

Geek Pride Day is an initiative to promote geek culture. The date was chosen as to commemorate the release of the first Star Wars film as mentioned above and I don't mind celebrating Geek Pride day but honestly I celebrate Geek Pride everyday of my life.

Towel Day is an annual celebration on the 25th of May, as a tribute to the late author Douglas Adams (1952-2001), who wrote the very famous series The Hitchhikers Guild to the Galaxy. On that day, fans around the universe proudly carry a towel in his honor.

And one more geek note.. the Glorious 25th of May is known to fans of Terry Pratchett's Discworld.

Lot's of awesome geeky things happen on May 25th.

Awards, Crazy Kids & Weeds

Did my morning routine.. woke up, jumped online and looked for work... nothing. Had some breakfast then back online for an hour or so.

I worked on my Geekie Awards entries for about an hour, I'm about 2/3d's of the way through them. I should be able to finish with a few more hours of work.. just not today.

Realized that I hadn't gone grocery shopping in over a month, so I headed into town. Before shopping I stopped by McDonald's for some lunch. I hardly ever eat McDonald's because the majority of the food doesn't agree with my stomach but I can eat their chicken nuggets & fries and they have some very tasty buffalo sauce that can dip them in. Anyways when I was there eating there were two women with about seven kids between them.. the oldest looked to be about 10.  Well these kids were running around, screaming, pulling out napkins and tossing them around, playing with the soda machine and just being crazy. The two moms were just sitting there chatting away not paying attention to their destructive kids. Well after fifteen minutes one of the employees finally asked one of the kids to stop throwing things. The look on one of the mothers face, you would have thought that this employee slapped her child. She said something in Spanish and the kid went over to her. A minute later they were running around screaming again.. it was one of the worst lunch experiences I have had in a long time. I couldn't wait to finish my food and leave. I tweeted this when it happened but I think people need to take a test before becoming parents. I know kids can be tough but parents need to take control and responsibility for their children's actions.. especially in public places.

After my crazy lunch I went shopping and picked up enough food to last me a few weeks.

Got home and decided to go out to the yard and pull some weeds. Yeah it's that time of year again with the rains/snow come the weeds. And with 2 1/2 arches there can be a ton of them if I don't keep up on them. Worked outside for a few hours before calling it an night and heading inside to spend the remaining hours relaxing and watching some TV.

Podcasts, Awards & Advanced Tickets.

Today I spent the majority of my day either editing my upcoming MASH 4077 Podcast or judging entries in the Geekie Awards.

I started my day with continuing the editing on my next MASH 4077 Podcast. I did some work yesterday but really wanted to finish it today. So for the next three to four hours I did nothing but edit the podcast.

When I was done I rewarded myself with a little LOTRO play. Since it's the Spring Festival in Middle Earth there are daily quests you can do... well everyday to get special "Spring Leaves" which you can turn in for some really cool items. Anyways I did my daily quests.. spent about two hours playing.

Once I was done I went onto The Geekie Awards judge section on their website and spent the next six hours going through entries and... well judging them. It was very entertaining... lots of great entries in the category that I'm judging. I got through about half of the entries.. plan to finish the rest by weeks end.

A few other things happen today.. The Geekie Awards announced the date of the Award show.. it's going to be August 18th, I'll blog and link when tickets go on sale.

I purchased my ticket for Man of Steel for opening night.. I'm going with my best bud Robert and I'm super excited as Superman is my favorite of the Super heroes.

I also purchased my ticket for Joss Whedon's "Much Ado About Nothing". They are having a special screening at the Hollywood Arclight and what makes this extra special is Joss is going to be there.

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.

Knights of the Guild Ep 50

Download from itunes: bit.ly/KotGCast, Listen on Stitcher Radio ow.ly/linep or Listen / Direct Download from the main website bit.ly/2CrYxk

Show Notes:

In this episode I sit down with Felicia Day and talk about the Season 6, Episodes 2 and 3.

• Knights of the Guild Feeds/Downloads http://knightsoftheguild.com

• Knights of the Guild on Stitcher Radio HERE

• Knights of the Guild Daily Blog http://knightsoftheguildpodcast.blogspot.com/

• Knights of the Guild Fan page on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/KnightsoftheGuild

• Follow us on twitter @knightsofguild

• Follow Host Kenny on twitter @Geekyfanboy

Best Laid Plans...

So I started my day on a schedule.. woke up around 7:30am. My schedule didn't start until 8am. So I jumped online and read twitter.. I noticed that LOTRO (Lord of the Rings Online) tweeted that they were starting their Spring Festival 2013 in game today. So I went to check it out. Figured it would be like their 6th Anniversary celebration last month but instead of a just a few new "special" quests, there were 30 to 40 new quests taking you all over Middle Earth.. it was pretty awesome but was not in my schedule for the day.

I debated on even starting the quests as I knew if I started I would have a tough time stopping. Also alot of the quests were timed so once you started you couldn't stop until they were complete. Well I started at 8am and didn't come up for air until around 2pm when my buddy Chris joined me.

I took a break as I needed to run a few errands, eat lunch and vote. Well the voting thing didn't turn out so well. My normal voting place was not doing it this time around and I never got anything in the mail saying where it was going to be. So I looked online and for my address the official site said it did not have a polling place for me so I wasn't able to vote :(

I did pick up what I needed and grabbed some lunch before heading home. I started LOTRO back up around 4pm and played until 8pm before calling it a night.

Of course I feel guilty not getting anything on my schedule done like I wanted to. But I haven't done a full day of gaming in quite a while and sometimes you just need it. The schedule I made for tomorrow is pretty much the same for today but I added "rewards" so when I finish a task like editing my next KOTG podcast I can take an hour to play some LOTRO.  So will see how this works out tomorrow. I can't keep delaying all this stuff I have to do.

I'm A Judge for The Geekie Awards

This actually happened a few days ago but I didn't want to announce it until it was official (on their website). I am a judge of the upcoming Geekie Awards. If you don't know what they are here is more info..

The Geekie Awards presents the best indie-created, high production value, awe-inspiring geek-genre content, art, products and experiences in the world.

We, as creators, have never found one show that covered all of our multi-faceted talents, and often, we’ve discovered that the rest of the world didn’t take our work seriously because it was “geeky.” So we created our own show to give indie “geekmakers” a place to shine and be seen by leaders and experts in their respective industries.

Our goal is to create an impact on mainstream media, putting the true geek culture in the spotlight as a collection of valid award-winning genres for storytelling and creation.

This award show was created by the lovely Kristen Nedopak

A friend contacted me on facebook and said that The Geekie Awards were looking for a judge for in a certain field and he thought of no one better then me. I was excited, I quickly emailed them and offered my services to judge and the next day I got a response welcoming me to the team.

So now I'm an official judge for The Geekie Awards.

You can check out my bio page HERE 

I Need A Kick In The Butt

Typical Monday... got up, looked for work... nothing :( Made some plans of what I needed to get done. Then I procrastinated, I mean I really should have worked on my podcasts but instead I cleaned up the house, did some yard work (It was way to hot outside), watched some TV, organized and cleaned up some stuff on my computer. I watched the latest episode of Defiance and I'm still really enjoying this series.. I'm not loving it but it's good enough to make me want to come back each week and see more.. As for my podcasts I did start to prep my MASH and Alien Nation podcasts for tomorrow. I wrote down an hour by hour schedule for tomorrow as well..

Being out of work really takes away the structure in life. I get up when I feel like it. I pretty much do anything I want all day long with no regards to what I actually need to get done. I tend to be very motivated in the morning thinking I'll get so much done today and then a few hours in I start to get lethargic and tired, then it's a struggle all day to keep myself motivated. So I'm hoping with a schedule I can organize my life a bit better, I do like goals. I hope this is the motivation I need to get things moving again.

Dungeons and Dragons and Friends... oh my!!

D&D today.. we normally play every other Sunday but since one member of our party is leaving this month we wanted to get one more game in with him so we pushed it up a week. Before D&D Anthony and I went over to Dallas and Jes' a few hours early. Jes and Anthony were going to work on making "the internet" (it's an IT Crowd thing). Anthony knows about electronics and Jes wanted to learn. So he actually showed her how to read specs and solder. At first it didn't work and then did and then broke but in the end they got it to work and now Jes has her very own Internet.

While they were doing this I chatted with Dallas for an hour or so before he had to get back to work on finishing up our D&D sheets. I knew these guys had HBO Go so I figured I'd watch an episode of Game of Thrones.

I read/listen to the first book but only got about 2/3d's of the way through it before not being able to continue. I was told that Game of Thrones was a fantasy so I was expecting swords and sorcery kind of thing.. it's not. It's all about political intrigue, incest and underage rape. I had a hard time with these topics. It wasn't a fun to read so I gave it up. Now that I know what kind of "fantasy" it is I do want to go back and read the books. And I've been wanting to see the series for a while now.  I did enjoyed the pilot a few months ago with Jes, Dallas and Chris. I was excited to see some more so I watched episode 2 and loved it.

It's slow, there isn't really any action. It's more of a story/character base series. Very dramatic, lots of harsh living, some sex and nudity. The drama kind of reminds me of  Downton Abbey. I mean it's not the same kind of drama but still very mellow-dramatic, very serious. But there is something about that kind of drama that I love.

Was going to try and watch episode 3 but Jes and Anthony were done with the Internet and Dallas was finished with his D&D stuff so we walked over to a shopping center to grab some snacks and lunch before we play.

3:30 came and now it was time for D&D. This round we still had a large group; Adam, Dallas, Jes, Josh, Kenny, Anthony, Will, Luis, Matt, Aaron and Rupert. Jen arrived during the last half hour or so of play. This game was completely different then the previous two. We had no battles other then a small skimish between our group and the blacksmith. I'm happy to say that Dash (my halfling Wizard) actually put a sleep spell on two of the three people. The story continued to progress as we walked around the town trying to get more information about the Dragon cult. I did a bit more interaction with the gang, but it went a bit to far when they wanted my character to decide what we were going to do next. Over all another fun evening of Dungeons and Dragons. (Pathfinder).

Afterwards I hung out with Jen and we talked for hour straight, catching up on each others lives. I miss her, we haven't really hung out in over a year. She's been extremely busy but recently moved in with my buddy Will. We talked about having a one on one day again soon. She and I are able to talk about anything, that's what I always loved about your relationship.

Anyways at 10:30 Anthony and I left Jes and Dallas' place and headed home. Can't wait for another D&D game in two weeks.

Doctor Who S7 Finale

~SPOILERS~

Not only did a get to see the AWESOME Star Trek Into Darkness (check out my previous blog) but afterwards I came home and got to watch Doctor Who Season Seven Finale. Now if you've been reading my blog you know that I haven't been a big fan of the second half of season seven. I mean this season hasn't been bad, all the episodes have been good, some even really good but none of them left me with the OMG moment like they have done in the past.

I so loved Clara in the Dalek episode and the Christmas special, but they haven't really done much with her in the series. I loved the whole "Who is Clara" storyline and why is she showing up through out the Doctor's lives. But again none of the episodes really dealt with that. It was mentioned here and there but nothing to serious. For the most part episodes have been stand alone episodes not really relating to the others.

Like I said I'm still enjoying the series but alot was riding on this finale and I have to say it didn't disappoint. I loved it, they finally explain who Clara is and why there are multiple versions of the same person. I loved how they blended her into all the other Doctor adventures. I like that they brought back the trio (Vastra, Jenny, Strax) and I really loved that River was back. This is one of those episodes that after it's over you are throughly confused but as I read more online and other peoples thoughts things start to make a little sense. 

The final shot of John Hurt and then they title it As The Doctor, but he's the one that was never called the Doctor. Many are speculating that he's actually the 8th Doctor, the one during the time war. This entire episode is leading up to the 50th Anniversary episode in November. Should be pretty EPIC!!! Can't wait. 

So did this finale change my thoughts about the second half of season seven. Not really it's still a season that I really don't need to go back and watch.. but I think the finale did get me super excited for the 50th anniversary.

Star Trek Into Darkness - My Review

So here are my thoughts on Star Trek Into Darkness (be warned there will be spoilers)

First let me say that I'm a HUGE Star Trek fan. I really got into Star Trek when The Next Generation had started. I mean I saw alot of the Original series but I was more of a Star Wars fanboy then a Trek fanboy... like I said... until TNG.

I enjoyed the reboot and the first movie from JJ. I like how he didn't destroy all that had happened in the past, they just created an alternate universe, brilliant idea. Keep the original fans happy and bring in a whole new crop of new fans.

So it's Saturday and the movie came out here in the U.S. on Wednesday, and actually came out in other countries a few weeks ago so it's been the tough avoiding spoilers. I am happy to say that I avoided most of them.

When the movie was over I was grinning from ear to ear, this was such an incredible movie. Action packed, amazing camera work, the acting was superb and the story was great.

Yes the main bad guy was Kahn and yes they pulled scenes directly from Wrath of Kahn and switched them up a bit. Do I wish they would have had a different bad guy.. of course. The Trek universe is vast and I was really hoping they would use someone that we didn't already know. I mean we are in a different universe why not see different bad guys. But with that said Kahn being the bad guy was pretty much out there, we all knew it was going to be him or Gary Marshal and everyone was leaning towards Kahn. So when he revealed his name I wasn't shocked or disappointed. And I have to say Benedict Cumberbatch did an amazing job portraying this iconic villain.

Most of the twists and turns I did not see coming which made it fun. I like that Uhura got a more substantal role in this movie. She was pretty bad ass. Scotty and McCoy's roles weren't that large but they had some crucial scenes. Chekov and Sulu didn't have a ton of screen time or much to do. Sulu had a bit more then Chekov and he also had a great scene where he became temp Captain of the ship which of course is foreshadowing of him becoming Captain of the USS Excelsior.

I loved the interaction between Kirk and Spock. These two actors have such great chemistry and really play well of each other. The scene that was directly pulled from TWOK but with a twist was when Kirk sacrifices himself to save his crew and subsequently dies in front of Spock. Of course in the original Spock dies but here Kirk does and the interaction between those two brought me to tears. I mean I knew Kirk wasn't going to die, as soon as this scene started I knew where it was going, I knew Kirk would die but they were going to bring him back with Kahn's blood. But even knowing that the acting from those two guys still moved me. The audience may have known that Kirk would be brought back to life but those two did not.. this was their final goodbye. Quinto's Spoke was amazing here. And of course once Kirk is dead you get Spock (instead of Kirk) doing the infamous yell of KAHHHHHNNNNN!!!!!!!!!!! Some folks are comparing it to the NOOOOOO from Vader in Episode 3. I thought it worked for the scene as well as being a nod to the original. I loved it.

I enjoyed seeing the Klingons.. I'm so glad they had their ridges. It was great getting the cameo of the original Spock (I didn't have a clue he was going to be in it). I like that they introduced the future wife of Kirk, Carol Marcus to the story.. look forward to seeing where that goes. I like the final battle scene with Spock and Kahn and the fact that Spock would have died if it wasn't for Uhura beaming onto a moving transport and attacking Kahn.

There was some amazing camera work here.. when the Enterprise is disabled and falling to Earth and it's twisting and turning and everyone inside is being thrown around was fantastic. Kirk, Scotty and Chechov running while the ship is falling so they were running on walls and then ceilings and falling and through corridors was so well done.  I loved that entire scene.

As you can tell from my review.. I loved the movie I don't think there was a single thing that I didn't like. I actual enjoyed this movie more then the first one and I can't wait to go back and see it again.  I give Star Trek Into Darkness a solid A

Family Visit

It's been a few weeks so today I went down and visited my dad, brother, sister-in-law, nephew and niece. First went to lunch with my dad. He wanted to try P.F. Changs. He loved it, especially the garlic noodles which are one of my favorite things from there.  Afterwards we drove over to Toys R Us as my nephew's birthday is in a few weeks and we wanted to pick up some gifts for him. Dad couldn't find what he wanted to get at Toys R Us so we stopped by Target and he found the laser tag guns that he wanted to get.

We headed back home and I hung out with the rest of the family. Got to play alot with my nephew (who adores me) and a bit with my niece (who is still unsure if I'm a good guy).  Had dinner with the family before calling it a day. I think this visit was the longest I have done in a long time. It was a great time hanging with family. My niece and nephew are getting so big.. Kenobi is going to be 4 years old on June 4th... where does the time go!!!

D&D Dice & The Tomorrow People

Got my new D&D dice in the mail today.. of course if you know me you know Green is my favorite color so my dice had to be green. Some folks are surprised when I say that this is my very first set of D&D dice. But understand the last time I played D&D I was 11 years old and didn't play long enough to buy my own set.. I just used friends dice. I played plenty of RPG games over the years but they didn't require dice. Now that I started up a new D&D game with a bunch of friends and it seems to be going really well so I figured it was time to buy my own set... can't wait to use them on Sunday.

I did a blog post a few days ago talking about the new TV series I was looking forward to in the fall. At the time I said there was nothing from the CW network.. but today the CW released trailers for their four "genre" type shows. The only one that really caught my eye was The Tomorrow People, which come to find out is a remake of a 70's British kids show. Quick sysnopsis of the new version; The story of several young people from around the world who represent the next stage in human evolution, possessing special powers, including the ability to teleport and communicate with each other telepathically. Together they work to defeat the forces of evil.

Here's the trailer

And here is a scene.

This looks like my kind of show.. I can't wait!!!!

Ever Changing...

I'm starting to make scrapbooks of my past movie marathons so I've been doing through hundreds of pictures picking ones that best represents the event. Looking at pictures reminds me of all the great times we've had the past few years but it also saddens my heart knowing that we will never have those kind of times again as a group. It was one of those rare moments in time when we all came together in all our geekiness and bonded as one solid group of friends. But over time people change, feelings are hurt, cliques are formed, people move away and what was once this awesome "Geek Mob" is just a faded memory.

But I won't be sadden by it's demise I remain happy that it happen. For a moment in time I had the perfect group of friends. I have the most wonderful memories and pictures to remember all the good times we had. They may never come again but who knows.. maybe something bigger and better is waiting just around the corner.

Now I'm not saying that those friends are gone... most are still around, we've just splintered off into smaller groups. We tend to hang out with those that we bonded with most when we were the bigger group. We have several folks who met through The Geek Mob who are now roommates. We also have some who are doing projects together like webseries. The Geek Mob will continue in some form or another... it will never truly go away as long as a few of us keep it's light burning in our hearts.

Buffy Rewatch/1st Time Continues...

It's Wednesday so that means I drive down to my best bud Robert's place for some dinner and Buffy. We walked over to Taco Bell for some vittles. Back at his place we continued the Buffy marathon. We are in the middle of Season Six. First up is Episode 7 "Once More With Feelings" In this episode, a mysterious force compels Sunnydale residents to sing songs that reveal their true feelings and deep secrets. Buffy is forced to finally admit to her friends that they pulled her out of heaven—not hell as they believed. Later, she and Spike share a kiss.

This is one of my all time favorite Buffy episodes. I have the sound track and listen to it often. I know most of the words to most of the songs. The music is great but so many things happen in this episodes. Tara finds out about Willow's mind trick on her and is devastated. Buffy reveals that she was in Heaven and everyone is devastated. This episode was a game changer for story and for story telling for a TV series.

Next was Episode 8 "Tabula Rasa" In the aftermath of the discovery that they had pulled Buffy Summers out of Heaven, Rupert Giles finally resolves to leave Sunnydale and return to England to allow Buffy to gain independence. Meanwhile, Willow Rosenberg agrees to go a week without using magic when Tara Maclay threatens to leave her, but almost immediately goes back on her word and casts another memory spell with the intent of making Tara and Buffy forget the damages of the spells she used on them. The spell goes awry and gives the entire Scooby Gang, including herself, complete amnesia, which puts everyone in danger when a demonic loan shark, Teeth, and his vampire enforcers attack the Magic Box to collect Spike's gambling debt.

This was a fun episode in the since that the actors got to play completely different roles.  Once the spell was broken then all the seriousness took over. Willow is going down a dark path and it's hard to watch as she's one of my favorite characters (of course I've seen all these episodes before so I know what happens but it's fun watching with Robert who has never seen it). Robert could not believe that Buffy and Spike continued with their weird relationship.

Our third episode of the night is Episode 9 "Smashed" Willow "de-rats" Amy. The Trio rob the Sunnydale Museum of Natural History. Buffy and Spike engage in some very rough play.

Again hard to watch as Willow continue down the darkside with the help of fellow witch Amy. And Buffy and Spike finally have sex while destroying a house was epic.

Our final episode of the night is Episode 10 "Wrecked" Willow is finally forced to face the consequences of her addiction when her carelessness lands Dawn in the hospital.

Willow finally hits rock bottom (of has she?) Alyson's acting is incredible. When she is pleading with Buffy for help it's heart breaking. There is no excuse for what she did but part of me still feels so sad for her. She addicted to magic, she can't help herself.

Season six isn't my favorite season.. but I do love the final four episodes, they are some of the best episodes of all of the Buffy series.

Another great Buffy and Bros with my best bud Robert.

My Blog

First of all let me say if this blog post upsets anybody I am sorry as it's not my intention to do so, but I need to get this off my chest and my personal blog seemed like an ideal place to do it especially since it's about my blog.

This all started last year during my 42nd birthday. I had a rather large party weekend, there were just over 30 or so people here. On Saturday evening things got a bit crazy and I got upset. The next day all was well and I had a fantastic Sunday and overall an amazing weekend.

Well come Monday when I went to blog about Saturday I mentioned that I was upset and that several of my friends were acting "out of character" and I didn't like that.

I was not prepared for the backlash that blog post would caused. The majority of my friends were great and said "sorry, wish you would have told us at the time", but there were few that weren't happy but one in particular who was extremely vocal at how upset they were and how they almost considered ending our friendship over it. This truly upset me but also angered me as I felt that I did nothing wrong. I didn't mention anyone by name in the blog (which they were actually upset about) and I was just blogging about what happen on my birthday weekend.

Anyways words were said, emails were sent and I figured everything was behind us with this incident. Well recently I was talking so some friends and come to find out that this "blog post incident" is still being discussed amongst my friends. They worry that they will say or do something to upset me and next thing they know it's in my blog.

This hurt my feelings. I have over 2800 blog posts. I have been blogging full time since 2007 and I have never bad mouthed a friend in my blog or said anything negative about any of my friends. My blog is normally about geeky things. Things I watch, things I podcast about, things I do in my daily geeky life and occasionally I'll get on my soapbox once in a long while and talk about religion or being gay or how depressed I am. But I make a conscious effort to not talk about friends & family personal lives. I have a ton of very personal conversations with family and friends.. I don't go blogging about it the next day... never have and never will.

To know that my friends think I'm going to blog about something they say or do makes me feel like these guys don't know me at all. I blog one time about four people who upset me during my birthday party weekend and I will forever be labeled as someone they need to worry about how they act or say things around... that's just crazy and hurtful.

I write this blog first of all for me as my memory is pretty bad and I love going back and reading all the cool things I have done. Secondly it's for my family and friends to keep up on my life. I don't get to talk to as many of them as I would like and this is a great way for them to keep up on my life. Thirdly it's for the general public, being a podcaster I do have a few listeners/fans and this is a great way to keep in contact with them and let them know what's going on.

I really don't know what to do about the situation. I'm not going to stop blogging or change how I blog. But it bothers me every time I blog I now think "I hope so and so doesn't gets upset over this".. it stupid.

Thanks for letting me vent my frustration and actually taking the time to read it. :)

Trailers for S.H.I.E.L.D & Wonderland

The networks continue to promote their new TV series coming out in the fall. ABC had their upfronts (a news conference) and premiered trailers for two upcoming shows that I am so excited to see.

First is Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. They released a teaser trailer a few days ago but this is the full on trailer and it's amazing. Has the same feel as the Avengers Movie.. I just hope they can keep it up.

The second trailer that got me excited is Once Upon A Time In Wonderland. I don't know if this is set before, during or after Once Upon A Time but it looks amazing. I thought SHIELD was going to be my must see series this fall but Wonderland looks just as amazing and I'm just as excited to see it.

LOTRO Fiasco & Once Upon A Time Finale

Today a huge update to Lord of the Rings Online was released (Updated 11). It took about two and a half hours for me to download the patch. Once it was downloaded I tried for over an hour to get LOTRO to launch but it wouldn't. I finally was about to get to my character screen and all my characters were gone. A slight panic took over as I have put in hundreds of hours on those characters and I didn't want to have to start over again. I the panic soon left as I figured they must have back ups of everyone just in case something happens.

My buddy Chris uploaded and opened LOTRO with no issues. At first I thought it was just me but soon I found a thread on their forums with hundreds of people who were having the same issue. Finally LOTRO released a tweet saying they were trying to resolve the issue but didn't have an ETA of when that might be.

Come to find out that this is the norm for a major update to this game, always has bugs that effect a large number of people. Guess I was lucky that I was only down for half  a day.. could have been worse.

(IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE LAST FEW EPISODES DON'T READ.. SPOILERS)

So Chris and I decided to watch the last two episodes of Once Upon A Time. Since Chris has been on vacation the past few weeks we haven't been able to watch together. So we had the second to last episode and the finale to watch. If you read my blog you know that I love Once Upon A Time, it's my favorite new TV series on right now. I loved season one and I loved how season two took the series in a whole new direction. So I was looking forward to seeing how it all end. The second to last episode was all about Baelfire and Peter Pan, was very enjoyable.

The finale was AWESOME... everything I hoped it would be. I had no idea that the previous episode was a lead in for what's to come. And the final scene leads to what will be the main story next season. Who'd of guest that Peter Pan is the new bad guy (or it seems that way) Looks like we will be spending the majority if not all our time in Neverland with the main characters. Kind of bums me out that we won't be seeing any of the secondary characters next season (at least it seems that way). I want to know why Peter Pan is looking for Henry, kidnapping boys from all over? And for that matter I want to know who Peter Pan is.. is he someone we already met or a completely new character? Guess will just have to wait and see... so excited.

After Once, Chris and I attempted to get back on LOTRO and after some tinkering around it finally worked. I logged in and all my characters were there. So Chris and I played for about four or five hours before calling it a night as we both needed some dinner.

To end my night I finally managed to finish editing my next MASH 4077 Podcast, which is due out on May 15th... woohoo

Mom, Flowers & Dragons

Today I was up fairly early.. did something to my left foot yesterday while out in the yard. Feels like it's bruised on the inside and I now walk with a slight limp, hope it feels better soon.

Visiting Mom for Mother's Day today. It's kind of a tradition I always visit her and either take her out to lunch or we BBQ at her place.. this time around it's going to just be her and I for Mother's Day. I don't get to see my mom as much as I would like so the time we do get to spend together is very important to me.

Stopped by Starer Bros to pick up some flowers.. I was there way to long, I always get her several bouquets of flowers and then combine them into one large bouquet. But I went back and forth debating on weather to get a plant this year as it would last longer. I had many items in my hand but kept going back and forth for about 20 minutes before finally just going with my original idea and get the two bouquets.

I got to Mom's and she was surprised that I had gotten her flowers (since I'm jobless at the moment), but it's a special day and I had to buy her flowers. Took her to a local Mexican restaurant.. one that she rarely goes it.  We had a great lunch, we got to catch up on each others lives.

Afterwards we headed back to her place to relax and just hang out for an hour or so. I had to leave around 3pm as I had a D&D campaign tonight at 4:30pm. They actually pushed it an hour so that those of us who had Mom's close by could still do something with them and still participate in the game.

Got to Dallas' by 4:00pm and still had a half hour to kill so I went to the local Ralphs to pick up some snacks. Walked into Dallas' place at 4:20 to find Dallas (of course) with Brett and Aaron. The next half hour the rest of the gang showed up. It wasn't the full crew like last time but a good amount. Dallas, Brett, Aaron, Will, Anthony, Rupert, Josh, Luis, Kenny and a new addition Adam. Later in the evening Jes and Jen would join us.

Once again my character Dash was quiet and pretty much took a back seat to the more prominent characters. We fought some Chocladites for the majority of the night before being arrested (and meeting Adam's character). We met with the Major and a Widow who gave us a task. We came into contact with some low lives in a seedy bar before calling it a night.

Dash did pretty good at fighting some Chocladies but wasn't able to kill any, but I think he held his own. He needs to come out of his shell a bit, maybe find someone within the group to buddy up with. The whole reason he volunteered for the quest was to help cultivate he's people skills. So far he's not doing a great job at that.

It was another fun night of D&D with friends. Instead of waiting two weeks to meet again we are actually meeting next Sunday to play again. Can't wait to see what this mysterious town has in store for us.