2011 had some of my highest highs and some of my lowest lows. It's been a year of lose, stress and uncertainty, mixed with new friendships, support and a rebirth. The year started on a sour note and kind of went down hill from there with a few peaks every now and then. Beginning of this year I was sick (lasted 3 months) which prevented me from working out. Up to this point I had lost 20 lbs but being sick and not working out meant I would gain it all back. My relationship with Harry was on a down turn and I knew I had to do something so we talked about it and we broke up. He wasn't going to leave for a few months so we had to deal with the next stage of our relationship, which turned out to be pretty good. This was also the year that I worked for MTV and I would have to say though it was extremely stressful at times (expected with my line of work) for the most part it was a good job. Up until the end when things got there worse and I wanted to quit (and in fact did quit for a few hours).
I had a mini nervous breakdown mid way through the year. But I guess that should be expected since I had broken up with Harry (after 8 years), Daisy went to live with Harry, worked at a job that was stressing me out, and I just found out that my Dad had gotten cancer again for the second time. And then when Harry actually left in August I felt really lost and alone. I been telling folks that I'm going through a mid-life crisis a bit early. I'm 41, single, jobless and not really sure where my life is going next.
There were points in this year where I didn't think I could continue going forward. Between work, Dad's cancers, Harry leaving, The Guild, multiple podcasts and my own health issues things weren't looking to good.
It hasn't been all doom and gloom this year. We had snow up at my house that lasted five days (rarely snows up here) so that was fun. Started two new podcasts MASH 4077 Podcast with my buddies Meds and Al. And Confessions of a Fanboy which I host solo. Also my Knights of the Guild podcast celebrated it's 2nd year anniversary. I've been wanting to learn sign language for many years and I finally started to teach myself. I have the alphabet down and I'm slowly learning entire words. It will take time but I hope to one day be able to have a conversation completely in sign language. I'm a huge J.R.R Tolkien fan and I finally found the Silmarillions on audio book and listened to them on my long commutes into MTV. There is so much rich history to middle earth and I completely feel in love with these stories.
I attended San Diego Comic Con as I have done the past eight years but this year I dressed up for two days. I've been wanting to do cos-play for years now but never took the time to actually make my outfit. This year I was determined to get my costume made and with the help of my friend Greg Aronowitz I had a fantastic Hobbit outfit. I had such a great time taking pictures with folks and chatting about LOTR. I plan to dress up for other cons as well in the future. On my last day of SDCC my jeep was broken into and thousands of dollars of equipment was taken, but there is a silver lining. When friends and podcast listeners heard about the thief they banded together and raised over $3000 for replacement equipment.
Went to the Western cup Quidditch match (yes Quidditch is real) and had the best time. Then a few weeks later I actually joined a local Quidditch team (Hollywood Harpies). I played in about six games before I realized that I need to be in better shape before I can continue to play so I'm currently on hold with Quidditch. Speaking of Harry Potter I finally took my trip to Florida to go to Universal's Wizarding World of Harry Potter. I spent 3 days at the park and was in heaven. It's just what I needed after a horrible job. I loved immersing myself into this magical world. They also started an online community called Pottermore which I was lucky enough to get into the beta program.
I got to see Star Wars in concert with my buddy Sean. I missed this when it came around to LA a few years ago so I was extremely excited to see that it was coming back for it's final run. Speaking of Star Wars I got a Disneyland premium annual pass and got to ride the new Star Tours and loved it. Then my buddy Andrew said we should go and just ride Star Tours all day long.. so we did. We were there from 2pm to 11pm and road Star Tours 10 times. We were able to see all the different versions and Andrew was actually picked once to be the rebel spy... it was a fantastic experience.
Got to meet The Kessels (Al and Joyce). It was great to see the bond we had over the internet was instantly there in person. They are a fantastic couple and I love them dearly. I also got to meet my buddy Bryan Hyland who turned out to be even more special and cool in person.
I got to be on set for The Guild season five, I've been with The Guild for four out of the five seasons now. During season five it was set at a comic book convention which meant they needed lots of extras. Some of those extras became some of my best friends. And to keep the fun going after shooting I started having Movie Marathon Weekends. Where 10 to 15 people would come over to my place for a weekend to watch movies, play games, drink and have an awesome time. First up was Indiana Jones then we did Star Wars, then Lord of the Rings. I also had a Weekend Christmas party. These events are so EPIC and are truly some of the best times I've had in my 40+ years of life.
I became an uncle for a second time. Little Miss Molly was born in December and completed my brothers family. She's adorable and I can't wait to see her and her big brother Kenobi grow up and become big geeks like their daddy and uncle.
I will remember 2011 as the year of friendships.. I've made some new life long friends in Jes, Kim, Jen, Anne, Nicki, Anthony, Rupert, Gabriel, Adam L, Ashphord and Lesley. While strengthening the bond with older friendships like Andrew, Scott, Aaron, Leo, Luis, Lydia and Thomas. I also have so many wonderful online friends, like Russ, Markus, Bryan H, Charles, Steve, Ken. Matt B and got to see/meet some of them at this years SDCC, like Dani, Adam (Bel), Jeff V, Becky, Erlend, Liz, Michael D, Joshua, Eva, Jeff C, & Bryan V. I've also lost focus with some of my older friendships. These friends are so dear to me that it's hurt that we weren't able to see each other very much in 2011. I hope that will change for 2012.
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| CHRIS |
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| JOSH |
And lastly there are two "new" friends who really made this year extra special for me... Chris and Josh. Both had that rare thing happen when you meet someone, you feel as if you have known them your entire life. I like to call them "Kindred Spirits". Being friends with them takes no effort, it's as if we have always been friends. It rarely happens and I was lucky enough to have it happen twice to me this year. I love both of these guys like brothers and they will forever be part of my life.
The end of 2011 has started an upswing in life and I hope to continue this into 2012. I'm still single and looking for a job.. but this year I'm focusing on me, finding my place in this big world. Going to travel more, spend more time with family and friends. Life is short, you never know when it might be our last day so live each day to it's fullest... that's my new 2012 Motto :)
On today's episode we have the Confession of a Fanboy, Russell
Clarke. Here's a quick bio; Russ Clarke is 23, and from England.
Yorkshire specifically, though he lives in rural Lincolnshire. He's a
writer by trade and hopes to have his first book, tentatively titled
"Book One of 'Three'" released some time in 2013. As for money, Russ is
currently a freelance journalist, biographer, author, screenwriter,
playwright, poet, performance poet, blogger and general all around know
it all. Russ has a podcast called "I Hearth Geeks" with the lovely
Maria Palafox and formerly Teal Sherer of "The Guild" fame, and is
currently madly obsessed with everything. He plays SW:TOR on the Rakata
Mind Prison server with his friends Kristian Nairn and Jake Stormoen
and invites anyone who wants to give it a try, to come and play!
Day three started around 7:30am, as least that is when I woke up. I didn't actually get out of bed until 8:30am. I actually texted Chris, who was sleeping on my office to see if he was awake and if he had been out to see who else was awake. He told me that everyone looked to be up, or at least awake so I got up, took a shower and headed out. Everyone looked as if they had a not-so-good sleep. I went to make breakfast. Started with potatoes as they tend to take the longest and I make a ton of them. I had 15 hungry people to feed. Will had to leave for Church and made himself a quick breakfast. I also made 2 dozen eggs, three packages of sausages and two packs of bacon. Chris knows how much I hate making bacon so he took it upon himself to get that cooked. With only a few more minutes left in cooking I noticed that my gas range flames were really low. Then it hit me that I'm running out of propane, I had checked it a few months back and it was at 20%, but with all these parties (ie showers) and having the heater on a lot I guess I went thought the gas faster then I expected and now my tank was empty. And with an empty propane tank means no hot water, no heater and no gas stove. The really sucky part is that it's a Sunday and tomorrow is a holiday so I 
can't even call to order more propane until Tuesday. I did finish cooking the sausages on my outside burner on my grill and luckily everything else got done before the gas went completely out. And the majority of my guests took their showers earlier so not many had to take cold showers. 
Anyways we all had a great breakfast while watching our traditional breakfast movie, Galaxy Quest. After Galaxy Quest and Breakfast the 15 of us went to Vasquez Rocks for a hike. Again this is the most we've ever had at one of these hikes. Also Chris did not want to lead this one and volunteered Olivia to lead. It was a bit of a struggle at the beginning as we had "new" folks who had never been to Vasquez and weren't really hikers but then we had folks who couldn't help but climb steep rocks and take the hardest route. So we split up several times which really wasn't my plan, but I did have some of my favorite people in my group. Chris, Jes, Scott, Aaron, Rupert, Kevin, Matt and Jennifer L. We meet up with the other group toward our final leg of the hike and that was fun having the full 15 of use together hiking. 
The rest of use headed back to my place for some xbox Fruit Ninja. Our numbers went from 15 to 12 remaining party goers. By this time it was already 5pm and we had a drawing for Back to the Future gifts that Dallas had brought. So I wrote every one's name down on a piece of paper and put them in my Jayne hat and we drew a name one at a time and that winner would be able to pick from the prizes until they were all claimed. Funny enough Jes pulled my name out first and I grabbed the Delorean from the 3rd movie. After the drawing Jes needed to get started on her six hour trek home. We were now down to 11 folks. We played Fruit Ninja for about an hour before Kevin, Doug and Aaron had to get going. Our party went from 11 to 8.
breakfast (I only bought breakfast for Sunday morning) I opted for pancakes, which everyone seemed to enjoy. Lydia, Olivia, Jes, Chris, Anthony, Rupert, Jennifer C.and Aaron arrived last night. So after breakfast I cleaned up the kitchen while the others went outside to play some extreme bocce ball. About fifteen minutes later I joined in on the fun. After bocce ball we headed inside and Chris put on Doctor Horrible's Sing Along Blog and we all did just that.. we sang along to the songs.. it was so much fun. Then Chris put on The Guild season 1 and let it play in the background as we prepped snacks and lunch for the other guests who should be arriving around noon. Lydia had to head back down to the airport to fly back home, so we said our goodbyes and she left around 1pm. Jen showed up and realized that she forgot the kinect for her xbox 360. I have been wanting to buy a 360 and kinect for a while but at this time can't afford it but I told Jen if she wanted to go get a kinect from target that I would buy it and then get my xbox 360 at a later date. So she, Chris and Olivia headed out to the store to get the kinect and some last minute supplies. When they got back they had an adventure to tell of driving behind a Delorean and following this car to Vasquez
Rocks where they approached the guy about his car and the guy was gracious enough to let them sit inside and take pictures. While those guys were out my friend America arrived. I haven't seen her in such a long time, so it was really good seeing her again.
just in time to grab some food as we began Back to the Future part one. During the first movie Jennifer and Matt arrived as well as my good friend Will. Scott showed up halfway though the movie as well and finally Dallas and Ashphord were the last to arrive.
We drank.. and drank.. and drank.. I was feeling really, really good. We played some card games. Star Fluxx and Asshole. We had such a large group that we had two games going at the same time. I won Star Fluxx even though I was drunk but the Asshole group sounded to be having a much better time as they were hooting and hollering and being crazy.
Today was MASH Podcast day all day long. First up was recording the next six episodes of the podcast (Feb - April). We were suppose to do these a few weeks back but I wasn't feeling or sounding so good. It normally takes us about 3 hours to record 6 episodes.. today it took us about 2 hour 15 minutes. So that was really good.
MASH 4077 SwampCast #4 - Harry Morgan Tribute
Today I spent some time with my family. Dad was sick but I did get to hang out with my brother's family. Got to visit my brother Michael, his wife Lora and my nephew Kenobi and my 3 week old niece Molly. Spent about 5 hours hanging out, helping with the feeding of Molly and playing with Kenobi. I also brought Michael our completed first episode of our Alien Nation Podcast.
He also showed me his collection of Lord of the Rings mini figurines for a RPG game that he use to play. He hand painted every one of them and even won some awards. Very detailed paint jobs.. I was extremely impressed.
After our rest we decided to head over to Disneyland. Our first ride was Indiana Jones. Now my friend Anthony was in a recent car accident (well he was actually hit by a car while on his motorcycle), I blogged about picking him up for the hospital a few months back. He now walks with a cane so he was able to get us into the handicap lines which meant we didn't have to wait in the hour + lines and only had to wait five to ten minutes. Not all rides had this "special" line but the big rides did and it was nice not having to wait. So after Indy we did Big Thunder Mountain, Captain EO, then Space Mountain and then had some dinner. After dinner we did Innovations and Star Tours before taking a break and charging our phones. During Star Tour we meet 
up with another of Anthony's friends Sharaya. So Jennifer, Anthony, Rachel and Sharaya went over to ElecTRONica over at DCA as Lydia and I charged our phones and watched the fireworks. After the fireworks Lydia and I rode the Matterhorn. The other guys came back over and went to get Gumbo so after we got off the Matterhorn we headed over there as well. After Gumbo we did The Haunted Mansion and for our final ride we did Indiana Jones for a second time.
2011 had some of my highest highs and some of my lowest lows. It's been a year of lose, stress and uncertainty, mixed with new friendships, support and a rebirth. The year started on a sour note and kind of went down hill from there with a few peaks every now and then. Beginning of this year I was sick (lasted 3 months) which prevented me from working out. Up to this point I had lost 20 lbs but being sick and not working out meant I would gain it all back. My relationship with Harry was on a down turn and I knew I had to do something so we talked about it and we broke up. He wasn't going to leave for a few months so we had to deal with the next stage of our relationship, which turned out to be pretty good. This was also the year that I worked for MTV and I would have to say though it was extremely stressful at times (expected with my line of work) for the most part it was a good job. Up until the end when things got there worse and I wanted to quit (and in fact did quit for a few hours).
I attended San Diego Comic Con as I have done the past eight years but this year I dressed up for two days. I've been wanting to do cos-play for years now but never took the time to actually make my outfit. This year I was determined to get my costume made and with the help of my friend Greg Aronowitz I had a fantastic Hobbit outfit. I had such a great time taking pictures with folks and chatting about LOTR. I plan to dress up for other cons as well in the future. On my last day of SDCC my jeep was broken into and thousands of dollars of equipment was taken, but there is a silver lining. When friends and podcast listeners heard about the thief they banded together and raised over $3000 for replacement equipment.
Went to the Western cup Quidditch match (yes Quidditch is real) and had the best time. Then a few weeks later I actually joined a local Quidditch team (Hollywood Harpies). I played in about six games before I realized that I need to be in better shape before I can continue to play so I'm currently on hold with Quidditch. Speaking of Harry Potter I finally took my trip to Florida to go to Universal's Wizarding World of Harry Potter. I spent 3 days at the park and was in heaven. It's just what I needed after a horrible job. I loved immersing myself into this magical world. They also started an online community called Pottermore which I was lucky enough to get into the beta program. 
Got to meet The Kessels (Al and Joyce). It was great to see the bond we had over the internet was instantly there in person. They are a fantastic couple and I love them dearly. I also got to meet my buddy Bryan Hyland who turned out to be even more special and cool in person.
I got to be on set for The Guild season five, I've been with The Guild for four out of the five seasons now. During season five it was set at a comic book convention which meant they needed lots of extras. Some of those extras became some of my best friends. And to keep the fun going after shooting I started having Movie Marathon Weekends. Where 10 to 15 people would come over to my place for a weekend to watch movies, play games, drink and have an awesome time. First up was Indiana Jones then we did Star Wars, then Lord of the Rings. I also had a Weekend Christmas party. These events are so EPIC and are truly some of the best times I've had in my 40+ years of life. 
I became an uncle for a second time. Little Miss Molly was born in December and completed my brothers family. She's adorable and I can't wait to see her and her big brother Kenobi grow up and become big geeks like their daddy and uncle.
