Xbox, Abbey, Reba & Cookies

Today I woke up feeling the best I have felt in a while.. still not 100% but getting there. Spent most of the day watching TV.  My buddy Chris mentioned that I should play some Xbox and my friend Jen left a few games for me to play so I popped in LEGO Star Wars II and spent about two hours running around trying to figure out how to open doors and pull levers. It was fun but video games really aren't a favorite of mine when I'm playing them alone.

A few days ago I found out there was a Downton Abbey special called Downton Abbey: Behind the Drama and of course I had to find it.. which I did and I watch it and as you expected I loved it. It was interesting to hear from the creator, cast and crew of this hit TV show.

I also watched Reba McEntire's new comedy Malibu Country. I'm a huge Reba fan, love her music and her previous TV show called Reba. This is very much different from that series but it's just as funny. And a plus playing Reba's mom in a comedian icon who I have loved forever Lily Tomlin and she is hilarious as usual. I'm really looking forward to adding this new series to my weekly TV viewing.

Was feeling better toward the evening and was in the mode for something sweet. With all my marathons folks have left plenty of baking items at my house.. I figured I would have enough to make something. I went with peanut butter cookies as they are one of my favorites. I found a recipe online and went to check and see if I had everything and sure enough I did.  This would be the first time I have ever made cookies from scratch and after and hour I have to say they turned out pretty good. Would have liked a bit more peanut butter taste but they were good enough for me to each four of them right away.

Downton Abbey Christmas & The IT Crowd

Still not feeling great but I did do some cleaning around the house.. I can't stand sitting on my butt when I have so much work to do.

For TV I watched Downton Abbey Christmas special and The IT Crowd.

I didn't even know about the Christmas special until I was looking at Wiki and noticed it after season two. I immediately had to find it to watch. This was the longest episode to date with a running time of 99 minutes. It picks up right where season two ended and I have to say it was incredible. This special felt more like season one did then two. The War now over the show got back to what it does best.. human drama. Everything about this special was.... well special. I think the Christmas theme added to me loving this even more as Christmas is my favorite time of the year.

I know I gush over Downton Abbey but honestly it's one of the best drama's out there.

(Spoilers) A big part of this episode was the Mr. Bates trial. You feel so bad for Bates and Anna, especially when he's convicted and sentence to be hung. I'm so happy they resolved the Mary and Sir Richards storyline which lead to the happy ending of Mary and Matthew finally coming together. I enjoyed the Daisy storyline, poor Daisy was always getting the shaft and she finally stood up for herself, looking forward to seeing where her story goes. And of course there is Thomas, if I do have a complaint about the show it's Thomas. I understand why they need this kind of character but honestly why would the family take him back after they know that he steals from them. I'm happy to see Miss O'Brian trying to separate herself from him. Don't get me wrong she's a horrible person but he just makes her worse. Maggie Smith is one of the best characters on the show. Every episode she makes me laugh, I can see why she won an Emmy for this role... just love her.  (End Spoilers)

Now I must wait for Season 3, it's currently finishing it's run over in the UK, so hopefully the US will get it soon, or I'll have to find it by other means. I'm also planning on purchasing the DVD's for Season 1 & 2, and 3 when it comes out..  I can watch this show over and over and never be bored.

After Downton I continued with The IT Crowd. My buddy Jen introduced me to this series a while ago and we watched season one together. I watched a few episode of season two a few months later but I haven't been back to it since. So tonight I finished off my night with watching the rest of season 2 and half of season 3.

Such a funny show, of course Moss is my favorite but Roy is a close second. I wish they would just stay with those characters. I'm not a fan of the stand alone Jen stories.. I like her best when she interacts with the two guys and I hate the owner of the company.. I could do without him completely. 

I still have half of season of 3 and season 4 before my IT goodness runs out. I'm looking forward to the rest of the series.

My Gimpy Life Podcast Episode 7

Download from Itunes ow.ly/eYv9G or Listen, get direct download mygimpylifepodcast.com

Show Notes:

Now that My Gimpy Life season one series has come to an end. There will be no more companioncasts, but that doesn't mean the podcast is over... far from it.

In this episode I sit down with Director and SFX maker Greg Aronowitz and talk about the making of the book cover " Blind Desire" for Episode 4 

I play audio comments from viewers Jane Hash and Dr. Ravi Malhotra.

thanks & enjoy,
Kenny

Editing Podcasts

Spend the day sick once again.. watched some TV here and there.. just stuff on my DVR that's been there for a long time. Tried to do stuff around the house but once again realized that it wasn't a good idea. I wish this cold/fever just knock me on my butt and run it's course instead of just lingering around... ugg!!

I did manage to pull myself away from TV later in the day and work on my next My Gimpy Life podcast #7. I didn't have much but I did have an interview with Greg Aronwitz as well as a few audio comments from fans.. so I recorded my intro and outro and spent the next several hours editing a pretty good podcast.  I really tried around 10pm so I didn't get to finish everything but I plan on posting it first thing tomorrow morning... hope you guys enjoy it.

MASH 4077 Podcast Episode 42

Download from itunes http://tinyurl.com/MASH4077itunes or listen/ get direct download http://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 #18 - Operation Noselift

42nd Episode Overall

Directed by Hy Averback
Written by Paul Richards, Erik Tarloff
Production code K418
Original air date January 19th, 1974

Set during the Korean War in the 1950’s

Plot Summary: Private Danny Baker has a big problem, and it's attached to his face. After he is caught trying to AWOL, Hawkeye calls in his friend Major Stanley "Stosh" Robbins, a plastic surgeon to help the private. When Frank and Margaret catch wind of the unauthorized operation, it is up to Hawkeye, Trapper, and Radar to prevent the majors from getting in the way.

Hope you enjoy it, Kenny

Fly You Fools!!!

This is by far one of the most ingenious advertising campaigns for an airline that I've ever seen.

I Hate Being Sick

No Happy Halloween for me.. I've been sick several days and I'm not feeling any better... well that's not true, I'm feeling better then I did a few days ago but not by much. I hate being sick and this is the kind of sick that's not horrible so I'm not knocked out on my butt. It's the kind of sick where you just don't have the energy to do anything. You just feel blah... That's not good when I have so much stuff to do around the house. I actually try and do stuff but then start to get really dizzy and realize that I'm pushing myself to hard. So I opted to just sit in my recliner and catch up on some TV.

I watched Downton Abbey season one a few days ago and I have been dying to watch season two.. so that's what I did. It's set a few years after season 1 and WWI has begun. A very different feel to the show for season two. Lots of growth for the characters and of course tons of drama. But that's what I love about this show. It's not your over the top (soap operey) drama, it's true, real and so emotional drama.

(Spoilers) My favorites Anna and Mr. Bates are finally together if only for a short time before he's arrested. The ass Thomas is back, and yeah he's still an ass but everything isn't coming up roses for him. He purposely gets shot in the hand to get out of the army. They do show a softer side of him in the hospital but then he goes to Downton and the old evil Thomas re-appears. Poor William dies and causes conflict with Daisy, who is just so adorable. They continue the whole Mary and Matthew, will they won't they get together until the end where Matthew tells Mary they are both cursed and will never be together. So much good stuff.. I can't wait to see where the stories go.

Disney Buys Lucasfilm

Today was not a good to be traveling and visiting family.. While I was having lunch with my Dad my phone started to go berserk with tweets and facebook postings. First one I read was Breaking News tweet.. "Disney Buys Lucasfilm"... I was pretty shocked. I told my dad and he said.. oh that explains your phone going crazy. As I read through the tweets and facebook posts I started to see comments about Disney making Star Wars Episode VII and my heart soared.

I was six/seven when the first Star Wars came out. I remember seeing it many times in the drive in with my family. It made me the geek that I am today. It's the reason I love science fiction and fantasy. I remember having to wait a few years for Empire Strikes Back and then a few more years for Revenge, I mean Return of the Jedi.

I remember when George said this was the middle trilogy and that he'd be making the first three and then the last three for a total of nine movies to complete the Star Wars Story... I was super excited. Time passed and nothing was being made.. I figured that these three movies were going to be it and I was cool with that as I totally love these movies.

Then in the 90's we got word that George was making episodes I, II and III and I was super excited. We were getting more Star Wars. The down side was that he mentioned that he would not be making the final three movies episodes VII, VIII, IX. So what was going to be an nine part story arch turned into a six part story arch and I was cool with that.

Then the three movies came out and fans either loved or hated the prequels. I loved them.. all of them and I enjoyed all the new characters, yes even Jar Jar.

Now when the news broke about Disney buying Lucasfilm and making more Star Wars movie, some of my online "friends" freaked out and were appalled and said this is the death of Star Wars... Kind of got the same reaction when the prequels came out and folks kept saying "Lucas rapped their childhood".  I say.. WHATEVER to them. I hate when people say they hate something and nothing has been seen or done yet. The mere fact that Disney owns Star Wars they feel it's going to be bad. How stupid do you have to be.

First of all I love Disney and everything they do. Disney purchased The Muppets and brought them back into the limelight and made them successful again. Disney purchased Marvel and we got all the cool super heroes movies that escalated into the best movie of the summer The Avengers. Disney folks are not stupid, they are not going to change Star Wars. Disney knows what the fans like and won't change things if they are working.

I love the idea of Disney taking over, I think this is the best thing that could have happened to Lucasfilms and Star Wars. They are going to be using treatments that Lucas wrote for episodes VII, VIII, and IX many years ago. Lucas is still staying on as an consultant, I mean it is his world.

I really liked this tweet from Kevin Smith  "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, I was told there'd be nine STAR WARS movies. 35 years later, the last 3 are finally happening!"

Honestly I didn't think we'd see this within the lifetime of Lucas.. glad I was wrong. I can't wait until 2015 when we get Star Wars Episode VII. I know I'll be in line hours, if not days before it starts. And I already know I'm going to love it because it's Star Wars.

Visting Family & Friends

Today I was up early and off to visit my family. I try and visit them every two weeks but with crazy gas prices, them living 80+ miles away and my jeep getting horrible gas mileage I have changed it to every 3 weeks.

I left my house at 10:30am and got there around 12:15pm. My sister-in-law, niece and nephew had just left to run an errand. So Dad and I headed out for some lunch. I had planned to go to my favorite Chinese place but as I was driving I remembered that it was Tuesday and the restaurant was closed on Tuesdays.. so we stopped off at El Pollo Loco instead.

Had a nice lunch with Dad then took him to Stater Bros so he could go grocery shopping. Once we got back to his place Lora and the kids were back so I spent some time playing with Kenobi. This was also the first time that Molly didn't scream bloody murder at the sight of me.. so I'm making progress. I mean she still didn't want anything to do with me but it's a start. Brother came home so I got to spend an hour or so hanging with him as well. It was a good family visit.

I left around 4pm to drive a bit north to my buddies Josh's place. I haven't seen Josh in over a month and normally when I visit family I like to visit him as well since he lives out this way. Got to Josh's around 4:45pm, we hung out and talked for a few hours, caught up on each others lives.

We then headed out to dinner at a place we went to a few months ago that both of us really enjoyed, Carino's Italian Restaurant. It was a nice dinner. Once back at his place we watched the first episode of Downton Abbey (yes I intrigued him with all my tweets a few days ago). He was instantly hooked and I knew if I started watching more I wouldn't leave for hours. We moved on to an episode of Spaced, we are almost through season 2. Around 10pm we said goodbyes and I headed home and was in bed by 11:45pm. It was a great day spent with family and friends.

Oh and the big news that broke... well I'll cover that in a separate blog post :)

First Viewing of Downton Abbey

Woke up not feeling so great, but knew I had to continue to push myself to get some stuff done. I did manage to get an hour and  45 minutes of painting done before grabbing some lunch and watching some TV. I recently acquired a few seasons of a show that has been getting alot of buzz the past year or so, Downton Abbey.

I really don't know much about it but alot of my friends on and off line love it so I figured I'd give it a go.  All I have to say is WOW!!!

Here are my tweets as I was watching:

Geekyfanboy Oct 29, 2:35pm via Twitter for iPhone

Watching my first episode of Downton Abbey. S1 Ep 1 Let's see what all this hype is about :)

Geekyfanboy Oct 29, 2:48pm via Twitter for iPhone

Ten minutes in and I'm already loving it. #DowntonAbbey

Geekyfanboy Oct 29, 3:42pm via Twitter for iPhone

Downtown Abbey is FANTASTIC.. Moving on to episode 2 of season 1

Geekyfanboy Oct 29, 4:31pm via Twitter for iPhone

Downton Abbey is so good and I'm only on Episode 2, not getting anything else done today.. I'm addicted. #DowntonAbbey

Geekyfanboy Oct 29, 6:16pm via Twitter for iPhone

Moving on to episode 5 of season 1, yeah this day is lost :) #DowntonAbbey

Geekyfanboy Oct 29, 8:33pm via Twitter for iPhone

Now time for the season one finale of Downton Abbey. Watched all 7 episodes in one sitting.. So good

Thus the day was over. It was only 9:30pm when I finished and it took all my strength to not start watching season two as I knew I wouldn't stop and would be up for another 8 hours. So I'm saving that season for another day.

Downton Abbey lived up to and exceeded the hype in my opinion. It's pure drama, no elements of science fiction or fantasy. It's a history piece, the acting is superb, the characters are so well defined right off the bat. I never hated characters such as I did with O'Brian and Thomas. I loved Bates and Anna. There are so many characters and they are all fantastic and interesting. I would say it's a British soap opera but that seems to do it dis justice. It's not an over the top melodrama. It's just incredible... There was never a dull moment. It was fascinating to see the two different dichotomies in the house (upper class and lower class) and how they intermingled. 

British royalty has always interested me and I love this period in time for it's architecture and clothing, men were always so dashing and ladies so beautiful. 

This series truly is a masterpiece and I can't wait to watch Season 2 and see where these peoples lives are taken.

Searching for Motivation

Once again my "out of work" funk is beginning to rear it's ugly head. I hate feeling this way, as it's not like I have nothing to do while I am out of work. On the contrary I have so much do between prepping the house to be sold, podcasts and catching up on TV that should keep me busy 24/7.

But instead of getting stuff done I'm finding that I'm having to motivate myself to get little things done and it's tough. What is crazy is I know that the funk is coming, I know the laziness is coming and I know that I'll regret not getting all this stuff done while I had the time off (as I will be getting a job again hopefully soon).  It's the same pattern that I've fallen into the past few years. So you think that would be motivation enough to get things done.. but it's not. :(

Now I haven't been feeling 100% for a few weeks (physically) so that could be playing a part is my laziness and over all frump. I have a chronic condition that I don't talk about here, it causes some major pain and uncomfortableness everyday. The past 10 years it's been particularly bad and flairs up from time to time and it's hard to be motivated and get things done when your in pain.

Yesterday on Saturday I painted for 2 1/2 hours, which I'm very happy about. I took a break to eat some lunch and while on my lunch I like to try and catch up on a TV show. My intent was to go back out and do a few more hours of painting but that never happened. I pretty much stayed inside and worked on my websites and various other things on the net and watched a bit of TV. I assured myself that I would get more painting done tomorrow (Sunday).

Well Sunday happened and once again I went outside and painted for about 1 1/2 hours before coming inside to rest and once again I didn't go back outside to paint more. Instead I worked on the next Knights of the Guild podcast. I missed a month last month (which I hate doing) and October is almost over and I didn't want to miss another month so I took the time today to record, edit and post Knights of the guild episode #44.

And to end Sunday I had my online bro-date with my bestie Chris for our Once Upon a Time viewing. And as always it was fun watching this new episode with Chris and Once Upon a Time continues to be my favorite TV series on right now.

In the end the weekend wasn't a complete waste.. I did manage to get 4 hours of painting done and released a podcast... could have been worse. I really need to stop this funk before it takes hold fully.

Knights of the Guild Ep 44

Download from itunes - http://bit.ly/KotGCast or listen, get direct download at http://bit.ly/2CrYxk

Show Notes:

 

I talk Season 6 and CompanionCasts
Tink Comic Book Review by Eric Hargus
On set of "I'm The One That's Cool" music video, I interview Sandeep, Robin, Vince and lead make up artist Kim Graczyk

 

Enjoy, ~Kenny~

Winds, Podcasts, Screeners and The Munsters

Woke up to rumbling on the back patio.. the wind was picking up and my deck furniture was being tossed around. When I got up most of my chairs on my deck were either lying on their side or blow completely off the deck. The wind was still gusting hard so painting was out of the question. This bummed me out because after yesterday miserable attempt at doing something I was determined to do better.

Since I couldn't paint I decided I would edit podcasts, get as many as I could done.. that way I could say this was a productive day. Well that didn't happen either :( Man I suck!!!

I did manage to be somewhat productive.. I worked on various things on my computer. Uploaded pictures to facebook, did some maintenance on my podcast. Took a number count for October and found that I had 27.910 download from across my five podcasts. Knights of the Guild had a really good beginning of the month (for some reason) and had 17,458 downloads for October, MASH 4077 has gone from 200 downloads a month to 8991 this month.. it's really doing well. Confessions of a Fanboy is slowly finding it's audience.. this month it had 423 downloads, My Gimpy Life had 769 this month and my Alien Nation The Newcomers Podcast is still struggling to find it's audience and had 269 downloads. I still have a few days and I'm hoping to hit 30,000 for the month of October.

I was very excited when UPS knocked on my door..  I got my very first DVD screener of the season, "Beasts of the Southern Wild" I personally have not heard of this movie but when I twitted about it, several folks said it was pretty good. I looked it up and watched the trailer.. it looks interesting and I look forward to checking it out.

I did manage to edit another MASH 4077 Podcast #43, we record six of these podcasts at a time and I normally wait until a day or two before they are due to be released to edit them. Well I'm trying to change that and edit as many as I can beforehand to save me stress and time in the long run. So far I have Nov 1st and 15th's episodes edited and ready to go.. yay me...

While I was finishing my MASH podcast I watched Bryan Fuller's new (should have been a series) Mockingbird Lane. It's a modern take on The Munsters which I loved as a kid. NBC ordered a pilot but didn't like it and didn't give it a green light for a series (boooo NBC). But I guess the pilot cost alot to make so they decided to air the pilot as a Halloween special.

I really enjoyed it. The SFX were pretty awesome for a TV series. Also it's from Bryan Fuller who did one of my all time favorite TV series Pushing Daisies and it kind of had that same unworldly feel.. I loved it. I think this series had alot of potential too bad NBC didn't see that. I am thankful to NBC for airing the pilot. 99.9% of the pilots that are made never see the light a day.

So today I was not as lazy as I was yesterday but I did a fair amount of TV watching but also did manage to be somewhat productive.

If the winds die down tomorrow.. I'm painting the back of my house for sure.. I don't care how well I fell or motivated.. it's getting done!!

Disappointing Day

Very disappointed in myself today. Got up not feeling hot but was determined to get alot done. I still have a ton of house stuff to do like finish painting the outside of my house, yard work, deck work and then a good cleaning and paint touch ups inside the house. I also have five podcasts that need new episodes, some come out as early at Nov 1st.  I have a sixth podcast that need to get started and it's so close. I'm working on my secret project (which feels like it has stalled a bit) and I'm trying to get my personal website update and working properly. So I have plenty to do.

But what did I today.. pretty much nothing. I sat on my ass and watch TV. Yes I do have a ton of TV recorded on my DVR and I do need to watch it or I'll have to start deleting it. But I always feel guilty being lazy and watching TV when I know there are things that I should be doing. TV is suppose to be when I have some downtime or need a break from working.

I did mange to edit my next MASH 4077 Podcast for about four hours and managed to finish it.. so today wasn't a total lose.. but still when I woke up I was so determined to get a few podcasts done and the painting of the back of my house completed.. I hate disappointing myself... maybe I'll do better tomorrow.

Mom, Robert & Buffy

Today I got up around 8am, checked my emails and such and ate some breakfast. I decided to watch some of my recorded TV and at 10:15 my mom called and asked if I was still coming down. Crap!!! I totally forgot that I had made plans to go down and visit her. I quickly jumped in the shower and got out of the house around 10:30am. My mom lives down in Newport which is about an hour and a half away. Traffic was good and I got to my mom's exactly in an hour and a half.

I haven't seen my mom in months. So it was nice to see her and actual get to spend some one and one time. We went out of lunch at a local Mexican restaurant, then drove over to Fashion Island as my mom needed to go shopping for presents for birthdays. Couldn't find what she wanted there so we went to another shopping area and found exactly what she was looking for. Afterwards we headed back to her place and watched some TV and talked for a few hours. It was a great visit.

Left my Mom's around 5:30, had dinner plans with my buddy Robert. Traffic was horrible but I did mange to get there in about an hour. This was our Buffy night. We haven't done a Buffy night in three weeks so we were way overdue. When I got there Robert and I walked over to Taco Bell for dinner. After dinner we headed back to his place and started our Buffy night.

First up was the season 2, two-parter season finale The Becoming part 1 & 2. One of the best season finales of any series. So heartbreaking but so good. After those two episodes we moved on to season 3 with the premiere episode Anne. Now this isn't a favorite of mine but Season 3 has some fantastic episodes in it and I can't wait for Robert to see what's ahead.

Got home around 10:30pm, watched some Simpsons and then went to bed.

Geek-a-Thon - Tuesday

Didn't get to bed until about 3am.. it was a long 16 hour day yesterday at the Geek-a-thon but I couldn't wait to get back over there for the final day. I woke up around 11am, got ready and left my place around noon. I wanted to get there in time for the viewing of Doctor Who. Lucky for me, as usual they started late and were running long. And my buddy Steve was in the chat room asking questions to delay them from starting the episode. I actually got there just as they were finishing up the background on Doctor Who.

I got there and a few of the guys from the Anime section were leaving.. Doctor Who was next with Gabe (who was the Who expert). Also joining the group was John who had been there Sunday and Monday. He had never seen Who either. So we started with Blink and April seemed to like it. It's tough to tell as she's interacting with the internet chat room alot and the audio is turned down. I'm not really sure she's getting the full effect of these shows.. but she seems to be retaining information as we would quiz her on previous stuff and she knew most of the answers.

More and more people arrived as we switched over to Girl in the Fireplace, one of my personal favorites. What was a great side effect is that John really enjoyed Who and is no planning on going back and watching from the beginning (reboot)... so that's awesome.

April's mom stopped by with some lunch (pulled pork sandwiches) which were the best.

Our final movie was Willow (one of my all time favorite fantasies), this was voted on by donors who gave $25 or more. They could choose from (Original) Planet of the Apes, Willow, The Last Starfighter, Scott Pilgrim vs The World, Star Trek - Wrath of Khan or Galaxy Quest. All good movies but I'm happy they choose Willow. I figured April would hate this but she actually was enjoying it.

A surprise guest arrived as we started Willow, TV's David Blue (as we liked to introduce him as), he's a very cool TV star, most notable know for playing Eli on Stargate Universe. I got to meet him when he did one of the Guild Xmas commercial specials a few years ago. I didn't get to talk to him much when he was on set of The Guild so it was nice to be able to chat a little bit with him here. We talked about Star Wars, Willow and various other geeky things. He just got an Ipad but didn't bring it so he was checking out mine. I was logged into the chat room and watching the feed, he asked if I minded it he chatted with folks.. I said.. OMG.. the guys in the chat room would love that. So under my user name he chatted with the gang and they seemed to really enjoy it. I had several people comment about my comments and say, wow.. that was funny or yeah you're right. But I hadn't a clue what they were talking about as it wasn't me.. it was David :)

More people arrived as the Geek-a-thon was in it's last hours... During the last hour Brad Wyman, who works at Indiegogo stopped by and was a ball of energy. Willow was still playing but know one was really paying attention, we were now focusing on getting the donation numbers up before we went off the air. The last hour was on big whirlwind, we auctioned off a few things, Dove did some magic was had jugglers.. it was pretty crazy and when it was over donations were at $6550. That is more then 65% of their goal which is unheard of getting that much money in only 60 hours.

So the Geek-a-Thon was a success as it did raise quite a bit of money for their movie... but did April find any geeky thing that she enjoyed? Yes, out of all the things she watched/played she enjoyed Magic The Gathering card game, Battlestar Galactica, Doctor Who and maybe Firefly. I think if she goes back and watches these again without the distraction of the tele-a-thon I think she can really enjoy some of them.

All in all it was a great experience. I got to meet some fantastic new friends both online and at the geek-a-thon. I got to participate in something that has never been done before and it was a huge success. I spent a total of 16 hours on Monday and 8 hours on Tuesday for a total of 24 hours of this 60 hour marathon.. not bad for someone who was only schedule for 3 hours on Tuesday :)

Thanks to everyone you watched, donated and encouraged us.. I had a totally geeky blast.

You can still donate and help get this movie funded. http://www.indiegogo.com/geekify and read up more about this movie here. http://themakingofcmd.blogspot.com/

You can check out more pictures HERE

Geek-a-Thon - Monday

My friend America Young emailed me a few weeks ago and asked if I wanted to be part of this Geek-a-Thon that was happening on Sunday Oct 21st thru Tuesday Oct 23rd. I of course say yes, it sounded like a blast.

Here are the details of why they are doing this.. America and her producing partner April Wade are making a movie called The Concessionaires Must Die. http://themakingofcmd.blogspot.com/ They are crowd source funding this with Indiegogo. http://www.indiegogo.com/geekify To kick off the fundraiser they planned on doing this geek-a-thon (live-a-thon as it came to be known). See America is a full fledged Geek.. April on the other hand is not.. she's never read a comic, watched any Sci fi or Fantasy movies/TV. And worst of all she's never seen Star Wars. So her friend America is exposing her watch 60 hours of geeky things. We are not trying to convert her we are just trying to show her the various things in the geek culture.  

You can check out the schedule of events HERE I watched a bit here and there on Sunday, to see what it was going to be like and it was very addictive. I was asked to join them on Monday at 11am for the viewing of Firefly. I was honored to be asked to introduce April to Firefly as it's one of my favorites.  I arrived early around 10am and they were still watching Star Trek Insurrection (another favorite of mine). I got to meet April for the first time as well as Dean who was introducing Star Trek to April... both were awesome. Dean had never seen Firefly so he stuck around and watch it with us. Also an unexpected guest arrived Jason Charles Miller joined us.

Even more people arrived as we were watching Firefly; Eric and Juan who were here to teach April Magic the Gathering which was happening after Firefly. Then Tennyson who was here to teach April Table Top RPG which was happening later in the day and Greta who was here simply for support (and to bring yummy in and out). John also came back as well, he was here yesterday for Star Wars. It was a full house as we continued (slowly) through the schedule. Various others came and went throughout the day.

After Firefly April and America played a game of Magic The Gathering before our game of Muggle Quidditch. We couldn't play a game (as planned) as we didn't have any equipment so instead I explained the game to everyone and showed picture of previous tournaments. It was fun to see every one's reaction realizing that this is an legitimate sport and growing.

After that it was time for BattleStar Galactica (new version). We watched a few episodes and of everything that April had watched so far she enjoyed this the most.

We then moved on to a Table Top RPG that Tennyson created himself called SkyChasers (you can read more HERE) It took us about two hours to create our characters but that's just the nature of this geek-a-thon.. it was a very slow process. I enjoyed this RPG so much that I pushed us to at least play a little bit with our characters, which was did and it was a blast (I think April hated this the most). I can't wait until this game is out there for all to play.

After that we called it a night, slowly the crowd of people started leaving. I debated on staying the night as I really thought about coming back tomorrow. But in the end I knew I needed some sleep so I drove home.

I don't think I mentioned this but the live viewing audience was fantastic. After a while you forget that you are on camera and that the viewers can see and hear everything you do. By the time day two ended they were already at 50% of their goal.

You can still donate and help get this movie funded. http://www.indiegogo.com/geekify and read up more about this movie here. http://themakingofcmd.blogspot.com/

Lunch with Friends & Magic

Jes and I debated on what to do today, she was willing to help me paint more but I didn't want her visit to be nothing but painting and to be honest I needed a break so instead we decided to get a group together and have lunch. I couldn't keep Jes all to myself for the weekend. I know The Geek Mob loves Jes just as much so we decided to make sure everyone who was able to, got to hang with her.

We set up a time of 1pm and were to meet at the Sherman Oaks Galleria. We weren't sure where we would be having lunch, there were several options to choose from. When Jes and I got there around 12:30. Rupert, Dallas and Brett were already there sitting at a table. We joined them and about fifteen minutes later Robert showed up.

We were still waiting for Luis and Anthony but I had gotten messages from both that they were running late, so we opted to grab some lunch and have them join us when they arrived. We decided to have lunch at Fuddruckers since it's easier to order individually and we had so many people. We found some tables in the back and bunched them together.

We ordered our food and waited. Everyone was having a good time chatting and making fun of the people announcing the names for this orders as you couldn't understand them half the time. We all finally got our orders and started to eat when Luis arrived. He ordered and joined us. Then Anthony and his girlfriend Lauryn showed up and ordered as well.

We sat and chatted for a few hours, at 3pm we had to say our goodbyes as I had to get Jes back to my place as she wanted to head out by 4pm so she could get home by 10pm. That's what we did. Said goodbye to Jes and tried to motivate myself to go back outside and finish painting the back of the house... but that's didn't happen.. instead I played around with my "Geekyfanboy.com" website. It's half done and I would love to finish it but I'm not that great at word press and after a few hours I was just frustrated and gave up on it (for now). It was close to eight and this was Sunday and I had a bro date with my buddy Chris to watch Once Upon A Time.

Once again Once Upon A Time was fantastic. I'm loving where season two is going, I'm excited about the new "bad" guys and how the old "bad" guys are kind of trying to "be good". Not that I think it will last. Tonight's episode was about Rupel and any Rupel story is a good story.. he's one of the most interesting and complicated characters. And as always it was fun watching it with my best friend a 1000 mile apart.

Hanging with Jes

Woke up early as my friend Jes arrived last night from up north and we were going to hang this weekend.This was more of a one on one visit. And Jes pointed out that this was our first ever one on one visit, which is hard to believe since we've been friends for several years. I think our last planned one on one turned into mini party so this this time we kept Jes' visit on the DL.

Started off with some breakfast and TV, while we woke up. We then headed out back and painted the back of my house for a few hours, we got the majority of it done and with with a few touch ups later the back of my house will be finished.

We headed to Islands for lunch and when we got home we debated on what to do next... go hiking at Vasquez, do some more painting or just chill. Since Jes and I rarely chill or in fact hang out that's what we did the rest of the night. For dinner we made some lasagna, had some wine and we just hung out and watched some TV/Movies (finally watched my Avengers on Blu-ray) and just chatted. It was a lot of fun hanging with Jes.

What Really Matters

I’m not where this story came from, but it certainly does remind you what life’s really about.

A Professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him.  When the class began, wordlessly, he picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls.  He then asked the students if the jar was full.  They agreed that it was.

So the Professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar.  He shook the jar lightly.  The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls.  He then asked the students again if the jar was full.  They agreed it was.

The Professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar.  Of course, the sand filled up everything else.  He asked once more if the jar was full.  The students responded with an unanimous “Yes.”

The Professor then produced two bottles of beer from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar, effectively filling the empty space between the sand.  The students laughed.

“Now,” said the Professor, as the laughter subsided, “I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life.

The golf balls are the important things – your family, your health, your friends, your favorite passions – things that if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full.

The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house, your car.  The sand is everything else – the small stuff.”

“If you put the sand into the jar first”, he continued, “there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls.  The same goes for life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, you will never have room for the things that are important to you.  Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness.  Spend time with your family.  Take time to get medical checkups.  Take your partner out to dinner.  Play another 18.  There will always be time to clean the house, and fix the disposal. 

 Take care of the golf balls first, the things that really matter.  Set your priorities. The rest is just sand.” When he had finished, there was a profound silence.  Then one of the students raised her hand and with a puzzled expression, inquired what the beer represented.

The Professor smiled. “I’m glad you asked.  It just goes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem, there’s always room for a couple of beers with a friend.”

A Very Productive Day

Woke up around 7am, got up instead of staying in bed. Was determined to get a lot of stuff done today. As I do every morning I jumped on the computer to check twitter, facebook and my emails. 2 hours later I was finished and about to head outside to get some painting done when my buddy Chris messaged me. He mentioned something that I was thinking about yesterday. We haven't really talked the past few days. I know that doesn't sound unusual but he and I talk via facebook or text throughout the day everyday and to go two or three days without saying much is very odd.

Some Hobbit Holes

So instead of going out to paint I hung out with Chris on Minecraft. He had to go to work in an hour so this would be a short session. One cool thing we did was install Ventrilo, now gamers will know what this is.. but for those how do not it's a way to have voice conversations while in game. So instead of our usual text communication we could just press a button and talk. It's a pretty awesome addition to our Minecraft play. As I mentioned in previous posts Chris and I are recreating our version of Middle Earth. So far we've been doing things separately, I worked on Hobbiton and Chris worked on Land of Men and the Dwarf Halls Under the Mountain. But today we both started to work on the town of Bree. Didn't get a lot done in the hour that we had.. we removed about 1000 blocks of dirt to level out the land and Chris did some filling in of dirt to level things. But we plan to build this town together.. and now that we can chat during the game it's may playing together so much better.

Chris had to get ready for work so I continued to do what I had planned to do before the hour of game play. I headed out back to continue to paint the outside of my house. I started working on this yesterday. It's been so hot out here it's made it difficult to work out front because it's expose to direct sunlight and it's way to hot. But in the back it's covered in shade most of the day so I started painting the back of the house and that what I continued with today. I was determined to get at least one coat of paint on my entire back of the house and I'm happy to say after two hours, a lunch break and another two hours I did just that. I finished the backside of my house.. at least with one coat.. will continue tomorrow and do a second coat and I'm hoping that the back of the house will then be complete.

I talked to my mom about Christmas this year. In all my 41 Christmas' I have spent them with my family. But this year I will not be spending Christmas with them and I wanted to make sure my Mom was cool with it. When I told her she seemed perfectly okay with it, which was surprising. I assumed she would protest.. but she total understood where I was coming from... My buddy Chris is in my military and was transferred to Montana earlier this year (as regular readers will know). He isn't doing anything for Christmas (last year he went home). So he'll be in Montana by himself and I couldn't have that. So I booked a flight to spend Christmas and New Years with my best friend. I'm extremely excited to be able to share the holidays with him.

After painting I came inside and watched some more recorded TV shows on the DVR, mostly Face Off, House Hunters International and Hot Set.

So I'm very happy with how much work I got done. I hope this kind of progress continues tomorrow.

Catching Up on TV & Movies

Today I did some painting of the house and a few things inside but around noon I took a break for lunch and never went back to work. I spent the next nine hours watching recorded TV and some movies.

I started with Syfy's Faceoff, I haven't watched a single episode all season so I sat down and watched one, then another and another until I lost count. I think I watched about six or seven of them.

Then I moved on to a movie that I wanted to see in the theaters but never got around to. Recently I was ordering something from Amazon and it was five bucks short from getting the free shipping so I looked on my want list and saw that this movie Beastly was on sale for $10, so I got it. Well today I finally sat down and watch it and totally loved it. So happy that I have the blu ray so I can watch it over and over. It's a modern telling of Beauty and the Beast. And if you know me well, you will know that Disney's Beauty and the Beast is my favorite of all Disney movies. I love the story behind it, the vain guy only thinking of himself until one day his path crosses a witch who casts a spell on him and turns him into a "beast". He has a limited amount of time to find true love before the spell is permanent. In this movie the beast really isn't a beast, he's more of a guy with some major scars and tattoos (though he looks very cool). The two main characters were good.. especially the guy who plays the beast Alex Pettyfer but the person who I loved the most and really surprised me was the witch played by Mary-Kate Olsen. She was just a fantastic character and so much fun to watch. It was also fun to see Neil Patrick Harris who is a favorite of mine.

After the movie I watched all the Blu-ray extras, alternate ending, deleted scenes and a few featurettes.. all were very enjoyable.

Watching those extra's reminded me that I got The Avengers Blu Ray DVD for my birthday and have yet to watch any of the extras so I popped that in and watched the Gag Reel (which was AWESOME), watched alternate opening and closing and deleted scenes. I watched a few featurettes that were alot of fun and then watched a Marvel One Shot called Item 47. This was a short about one of the weapons that the battle falling into the hands of this couple who manage to get it working and go on a bank robbing spree. I don't have a clue when or why this was made. I don't know if it's a Blu ray special only or aired somewhere. It was pretty cool..

All in all is was a productive day in the morning and then turned into a fun TV/Movie night.

Politics

I don't talk politics very often on facebook, twitter or my blog, but the above video brought me to tears and I just had to share it on all platforms. 

I have many friends and family who are Republican and they have every right to vote however they see fit. But this is why I'm voting for Obama, I not only think he is a great leader but he is loving and caring to all, he believes in equality for all. He doesn't spew hate or intolerance or hide behind religion.

I'm a proud gay man and I'm fighting for my civil liberties, I'm fighting for rights that every heterosexual person has because society sees them as "normal". I don't care about foreign policy, or money or big or small governments .. all I care about is equality for all.. I want to marry my future partner, I want to be able to see my partner if he is in a hospital, I want to share in the benefits of my partner, I want to adopt a child with my partner, I want to live my life the way I was born to live.

President Obama has advanced "gay" rights further then any other president in history. I fear what will happen if Mitt Romney is elected as our next president. How many set backs we will have. 

Some ask how am I'm able to vote for a person based on one issue.  I responded with, this one issue is my life. And it's true, I'm not asking for anything extra out of life, I just want to live, love and share my life as others do. I don't need special treatment, I just need to be treated like everyone else.

This is why I will be voting for Barack Obama for another four years!!!!

Cloud Atlas - My Review

(MAY CONTAIN SLIGHT SPOILERS)

Tonight I went to the Warner Bros studios to see a pre-screening of Cloud Atlas. This is part of my PGA deal. I get screenings DVD's of movies for the PGA awards but I also get lists of dates when I go actually go to a theater and see the movie for free. Sometimes I get lucky and I get to see the movie before it's even out in theaters. This was one of those times.  I'm able to bring one guest with me to these screenings and I asked my buddy Robert to join me.

Never been to the Warner Bros studio screening room, it's not as bad as some theaters but it's not as great at Paramount's large screening room. Anyways I heard about Cloud Atlas maybe a month earlier. My former boss asked if I had ever read the book and that they were making a movie. I have not read the book so I looked up the trailer and was amazed that I had not heard of it earlier. The trailer looked pretty cool. It's a difficult movie to explain but here is a synopsis that I found online:

An epic story of humankind in which the actions and consequences of our lives impact one another throughout the past, present, and future as one soul is shaped from a murderer into a savior and a single act of kindness ripples out for centuries to inspire a revolution. It also has a great cast.

• Tom Hanks as Dr. Henry Goose / Isaac Sachs / Dermot Hoggins / Zachry Bailey
• Halle Berry as N'Fera / Jocasta Ayrs / Luisa Rey / Ovid / Meronym
• Jim Broadbent as Vyvyan Ayrs / Timothy Cavendish / Prescient
• Hugo Weaving as Mephi / Bill Smoke / Nurse Noakes / Control / Old Georgie
• Jim Sturgess as Adam Ewing / Lloyd Hooks / Hae-Joo Chang / Adam Bailey
• Doona Bae as Tilda Ewing / Sonmi-451
• Ben Whishaw as Robert Frobisher / Georgette Noakes
• James D'Arcy as Rufus Sixsmith / Nurse James / Archivist / Sloosha
• Zhou Xun as Yoona-939 / Rose Bailey
• Keith David as Kupaka / Joe Napier / Ankor Apis / Prescient
• David Gyasi as Autua / Lester Rey
• Susan Sarandon as Madame Horrox / Ursula / Abbess
• Hugh Grant as Reverend Horrox / Alberto Grimaldi / Seer Rhee / Cannibal

All I knew about this movie is that it takes place at various times and that each main actor plays several roles through out time.

I've always like the idea that we go through multiple lives with the same group of people (souls) around us, were all connected forever. So in one life you can be lovers, in another life you can be best friends and yet another life you could be brothers. This story is similar to that and that appealed to me. So we visit several different times, the nineteenth-century, the thirties, the seventies, present day and the two set in the future. Which one looks to be very futuristic and the other looks to be prehistoric but you find out it's far into the future.

You watch as these stories unravel and you bounce from time to time. Each piece adding a little more to the over all story. It's really cool to see how each of these characters are connected over time. I love how their actions in the past effect their actions in the future or how they mimic each other. I enjoy how some of the characters recognize this connection and comment about it.

The futuristic setting was pretty incredible and the special effects were amazing. I'd say about 80% of the age/altering make up was fantastic. There were a few times when it looked like a mask or that it wasn't the persons real face but then there were times that I didn't recognize the person for who they were. At the end of the movie they show the actors name and then show pictures of all the characters they played. I was amazed by some of them as I had no idea.

This is a movie that you can see again and again and pick up even more details. I don't think the writers try and hide anything it's just that there is so much going on it's difficult to take it all in, with the first viewing.

My favorite stories were the lovers in the 30's, though it was very tragic it had some very beautiful moments.  Jim Broadbent character in present day, he brought the humor to the film. All his stuff were good but when he gets to the senior home.. man that was some hilarious stuff. And finally the futuristic stuff. I loved the action, the love story and the meaning behind it all.

I can't forget the music as it's a big part to several of the stories and the sound track to this film was pretty amazing and I'm sure I'll be buying the CD when it comes out.

Overall I give this movie an A. It's very ambitious with a running time of almost 3 hours (2:44). I didn't once look at my phone to check the time. I was invested in this world and these characters. Every story had some high points and lows. It was blended together so seamlessly and made the experience fantastic.