Knights of the Guild

Been a super busy day today.. but in a good way.


Lots of Guild podcast news... first we got our drawing that we commissioned from the say person who did the drawings for The Guild cast. It turned out great (even thought I don't think I'm that large).

Second Jenni came over to record a promo and our first episode. After a rough start, trying to get skype to work so we could do an interview with Dani (Guild fan) every went smooth. Jenni and I just clicked.. we laughed and told stories and played off each other very well.

Third I cut the promo together

And Fourth, I finished the podcast website, which you can view here. I think it turned out great. I then uploaded the promo podcast to the website and also uploaded it to itunes for review. Once the approve the podcast you'll be able to subscribe to it on itunes.

Next up I have to do an interview with a crew member (Director Sean) and a cast member which I have figured out yet. Then I can cut the first episode together and post it up by Feb 15th.

It was a great day today.. lots of fun and I'm really looking forward to continuing this podcast for many years.

A Bright Spot

When I got home from that horrible day there was a package for me. I finally got my Star Trek The Next Generation figures that I ordered over a year and a half ago. Ensign Ro, Dr. Crusher, Nurse Ogawa and Chief O'Brien. So with those figures and watching one of my all time favorite TNG episodes my horrible day ended on a very bright note...

One of "those" days

Today started off bad, just a bunch of little things that didn't go right. I knew then I should have just gone back to bed.. but of course that was not a choice. And it just go worse from there. Work was a total crazy hectic mad house. Onlines, outputs, DVD's, schedules, computer issues, lap tops breaking, internet going down and the list goes on and on. Needless to say when 6:30pm came around I was ready to go home and put an end to this horrible day.

Foiled!!

Today I foiled the desk of my friend Will. A few weeks ago we were talking during lunch about practical jokes. He kept saying how good he was at it. Well when we got back he pulled a minor joke on another co worker of ours. She then came into my office and said we have to prank Will. So several weeks passed by and the day final came. Will have an appointment and left the office around 10am and wasn't expected to come back till 11:30am. So I hatched my plan. I purchased five rolls of aluminum foil and wrapped every single item on his desk. Computer, keyboard, mouse, mouse pad, pens, papers, post its, wires, coffee cup and even the coffee stirrer. If it was on his desk it was wrapped in foil.


Well he came back to his desk and had the biggest smile on his face. Of course he knew it was me who did it and proclaimed that he would have his revenge. So now I sit and wait for something to happen to me....

More Guildie Podcast Stuff

After choosing a name for the podcast I had to go and build a website for it. So much stuff goes into creating a podcast that I never thought of. It's a fun process but some things cost money. I plan on putting up a paypal donation button on the site and hope folks enjoy the podcast and will make a donation to cover production costs. I decided to go with podbean.com as my podcast host. It's a very simple website and explains exactly how to create the webpage, offers templates and has a step by step instructions on how to upload you podcast to itunes. It was well worth the $50 bucks for the year. I'll post a link when it's closer to being finished.

Naming my Podcast

I am starting a podcast for The Guild. I'll be co-hosting it with my friend Jenni. Both her and I are fans of the Guild and worked on season two together. We are trying to come up with a name of the podcast. I put out several requests for names on several forums and today Jenni and I finally picked a name for the podcast.


We decided to go with Knights of the Guild. Out of all the names given this one we both felt told people what it was about and gave a nod to the die hard fans as the guild's guild name is The Knights of Good.

So the full title is Knights of the Guild: The Official Fan Podcast of the webseries The Guild.

Skype Chat / One Year Anniversary

Today we had a skype chat with some members of the Treks in Sci Fi forums. Today is The Ready Room's one year anniversary. The Ready Room, if you don't know, is the podcast I do every week about the role playing game that we play on Treksf. It was alot of fun as we got alot of people to join us. You can check out the Treks in Sci Fi Forums here. We recorded this skype call and turned it into podcast.

Long Work Day

I'm soooooooo tired, today I put in a 15 hour day.. I haven't done that in a while. Now that we are delivering episodes to the network work is going to be getting a bit more hectic.

Obama's Agenda

Today I came across President Obama's Agenda and several things caught my eye. Under his civil rights section here is a "Support for the LGBT Community". And he mentioned one item that were very important to Harry and I.


Support Full Civil Unions and Federal Rights for LGBT Couples: President Obama supports full civil unions that give same-sex couples legal rights and privileges equal to those of married couples. Obama also believes we need to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act and enact legislation that would ensure that the 1,100+ federal legal rights and benefits currently provided on the basis of marital status are extended to same-sex couples in civil unions and other legally-recognized unions. These rights and benefits include the right to assist a loved one in times of emergency, the right to equal health insurance and other employment benefits, and property rights.

Many of you know Harry is from Austria and because of the DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act) I could never sponsor Harry as my civil partner. We have been dealing with Harry's immagration status now for five years and if Obama acutally reverses this law it will open doors that he and I never though possible. If this does happen it will change Harry and my life forever.

A New Beginning

Today our 44th President took office. It’s been a day I have been waiting for, for 8 years. I am happy that Barack Obama won and we can finally get rid of one of the worse presidents in history.


President Obama has a very large task ahead of him and I don’t expect him to perform miracles but at least he can turn this country around and bring back hope and prosperity.

I stayed home an extra hour this morning so I could listen to his swearing in. It was such a monumental event and in the future I’ll be able to say I was here when our first black president took this country out of the darkness and brought it back into the light. Of course we have to see if he holds true to his promises, but there is something about this man that when he speaks, you know he speaks the truth. Here’s a fantastic four years!!!!

Happy Birthday Tom

Happy Birthday to one of my closest friends and former boyfriend. And to the ordained minister who married Harry and I last August. Thanks for always being there for me. Hope you have a great day.

One More Day!!!

Today is the last day of having one of the worst and most unpopular presidents in United States history. Everyone rejoin.... the evil witch is dead. Let's start a new era for the country and it's people.

Visiting Dad and More Editing

Today I got up early and did some more editing of my Doctor Who podcast. It's very slow going but I'm shaving off minutes here and there.


Around lunchtime Harry and I headed over to visit my Dad, brother and sister-in-law. It was a nice visit. We took dad out to our favorite Chinese restaurant for lunch.

When I got back home I went back to editing the podcast. I finally got it down to 1 hour and 39 minutes. It's till over by 9 minutes but I can't cut anymore. I hope Rico will accept it at this length... I'm sure he will..

Tom's Fantastic Four-ty Party

Today one of my good friends is having his 40th's birthday party. He's a geek like me so his theme is Fantastic Four and everyone is either wearing a superhero costume or t-shirt. Harry and I opted for the Superhero t-shirts. He's having at his boyfriend Ervin’s house, who is a doctor and lives up in the Los Feliz hills in a beautiful house that over looks Los Angeles, Hollywood and the Ocean.

The party was alot of fun but after four hours Harry and I were hungry (he supplied pizza and lasagna) which is great if you are not lactose intolerant. So Harry and I left to get some dinner. It was a fun night.

Editing a Podcast

Some of you may know I help moderate a forums for the Treks in Sci Fi forums. It's also one of my favorite podcasts and I have been listening for years. Well Rico (the host) put the call out there for folks to take over a podcast once a month and me along with several other forum friends got together and recorded our thoughts on the New Doctor Who series.


I'm currently editing the 2 hour and 50 minute podcast down into a very tight 90 minutes, as this is the length Rico likes to keep his podcasts. I got up super early to start working on this and it's going very slowly. I'm having to cut alot of the fun banter and sample audio clips from the episodes. This is going to be tough..

BSG Returns

After a seven-month hiatus, Battlestar Galactica returns for it's final 10 episodes of the series. Man did it not disappoint. No many answers but tons and tons of new stuff to think about. We find out who the final 5th cylon was and there is a shocking moment that made me jump up from the couch and screen NO!!!!!!! Can't wait for the final 9 episodes.

IMDB Updated

Hey all.. I will occasionally go to IMDB and updated the project I have been working on. I have a fairly extensive list now of shows I worked on and today I just submitted quite a few other shows that I did, including The Guild. You can check out my IMDB (internet movie database) page HERE.

Star Trek: Boldly

Some of you may or may not know that I co-run a Star Trek role playing game online. It's part of the Treks in Sci Fi forum in which I help run. I am the Captain of the ship as well as a few other characters. The way we write is like a continuing novel that everyone contributes to via his or her character. We are about to start Season Nine, each season runs about three month. Well our fifth season was extra good and Jen, my co-mod and co-runner of the rpg wanted to do a dramatization of that season. She went all out, she got some of the members of the Treksf forum, including me to do some voice work and she also got outside actors to do some of the voices. She produced it and added sfx and music courtesy of the Moyers. And she makes this wonderful audio drama.


So far only part one has been posted (runs about 40+ minutes) but it's very well done and so much fun to listen to. If you are interested you can check it out here.

$10,000

Today I took Harry to the dentist. He broke a tooth about a month ago and he has been having issues with it and also having issues with a back molar. Harry has no insurance so we knew this might be costly but it's something you have to do. They had no problem pulling the back molar but with the front tooth, it was not savable so they would have to pull it and we didn't want him to have this hole there so we discussed our options on how to fill it.


We had two... we could pull the tooth and Harry could get a temp tooth that would only be for ascetic purposes or he could get a permanent tooth. If we went with the temp only it would be about $5000 to pull both teeth and make the temp one. If we went with the permanent tooth it would cost $10,000 to pull both teeth and file in the hole with cadaver crushed tooth so it would not heal over and make it easier to put in the post to hold the permanent tooth and of course this would take months to do so they would have to make a temp tooth anyways for the time being.

Well I'm not a rich man but knew we had to do something. So Harry and I talked it over and he will have both teeth pulled and will fill in the front one and prepare for the permanent tooth and will make the temp tooth. If he doesn't mind having the temp tooth we may just keep that. Or in time when funds are back up we might go ahead with the permanent tooth since it's all prepped and ready.

So to make a long story short this first visit to the dentist is going to cost us $5000.00 and if we decide to go back and get the permanent tooth that will be another $5000.00. And that is just for one tooth. And people wonder why so many folks have bad teeth.. It’s the cost plain and simple.

The Guild Podcast

Well it's official I am going to start a monthly The Guild podcast. I have wanted to do a podcast for a while but really wanted to come up with a unique topic since it seems everyone is doing a podcast these days. A few weeks ago while I lying in bed it came to me that no one is doing a podcast about our favorite Guildies. And since I'm working on the BTS of season two and know all the actors and crew I figure it would be perfect for my podcast topic.


I emailed Felicia to make sure she was cool with the idea and a few days later she said yes. I then went to a fellow crewmember from the second season and asked if she would be interested in co-hosting the show with me. I find when you have two people who play off each other make a more interesting podcast. Of course she was very happy to be part of the project. BTW her name is Jenni.. so it's going to be Kenny and Jenni :)

Today I started to work on an outline for the show and with Jenni's input I think we have the beginnings of a cool podcast. We haven't gotten a name yet but we have some cool ideas. We hope to record our test podcast in a few weeks and have our first official podcast up on itunes mid-February.

I'll keep you posted.

Guildie Interviews

Part of the BTS stuff I am doing for the Second Season of The Guild includes Interviews with Cast and Crew. I got most of the crew while we were shooting but the Cast is much harder then they were always busy. Today I was able to go over to Felicia's house and interview Felicia Day (Codex), Sean Becker (Director/Editor), Kim Evey (Producer), John (DP), Elizabeth (Production Manager) and Ben (Post Super). I spent about six hours there doing the interviews and getting some BTS footage of Sean editing an episode. I got some good stuff and can't wait to interview the rest of the cast and get to editing some of these pieces.

Hair in Unexpected Places

Wow.. today I was getting ready for bed when I looked in the mirror and noticed that I had quite a bit of hair on my stomach. This is unusual because I have no hair on my chest or stomach area. It's must be because of the testosterone gel that I am using but it's funny because I know this didn't grow over night but I never noticed it before. I was so excited I went to Harry and said.. "look at my stomach" and he said, "Where did all that hair come from??" It was very cute. Now if I could only get the hair on the top of my head to grow.. I'm been extremely happy. :)

Voting

Today I voted for the first time for the Producer's Guild of America Awards.. it was kind of exciting, now I have to see who the winner will be.

The Guild Episode Six

Today episode six of The Guild second season was posted at MS Video. I'm loving this season.. and I'm not saying that because I worked on it.. it's actually a really funny season so far. You can see the episode here.

Jeep Issues... again

Today when I left work my check engine light came on. It's frustrating because only two weeks ago I took my jeep into the shop because my check engine light was on. My jeep is still running smoothly so I'll see what happens the next few days.

Still Digitizing

Today I finished up to tape 29 of 50 for the BTS Guild tapes... not bad a little over halfway done.

The New Doctor

Today they announced the new Doctor Who, he will be the 11th actor to play that role. His name is Matt Smith and he is fairly and unknown. He is also the youngest actor to play the famous timelord. I am holding back judgment until I actually see him in the role but man is it going to be tough stepping in the shoes of David Tennet... only time will tell.

Xmas is Over

Today Harry and I took down all our Christmas decorations. It was sad but also nice getting our house back in order. I got to finally move the Big Screen TV to its rightful spot and hook up my surround sound. Now I'm just waiting to get an HDMI cable to we can get true HD from our cable box.

More Star Trek Videos and Digitizing

Been trying to get more of The Guild footage digitized as I'm going to start editing the BTS stuff soon. Between digitizing tapes I'm editing last years footage of Star Trek the Tour. It's great fun to see how geeky and excited we were when we went last year... so much fun.. you can watch the videos on my You Tube page

It's A New Year...

Every year I make various resolutions and every year for various reasons I don’t keep them. So instead of disappointing myself I am going to set life goals.


- First goal: Is to be a better husband, after five years of being together your life becomes a routine, you do the same things day in and out. This year I’m going to try and vary the routine as much as possible.

- Second goal: To be a better friend, I have some wonderful friends who have enriched my life and I don’t see them as much as I would like to. My goal is to see my friends at least twice a month, even if it’s just a quick lunch. If we can’t meet up then will call each other and talk over the phone and catch up on each other lives. I miss my friends.

- Third goal: Lose weight, last year I gained 30 lbs. As a somewhat excuse I did start using testosterone gel and my doctor said that one of the side effect is weight gain but it also doesn’t help that I don’t work out or eat properly. So I am going to start to work out again as much as I can and work on eating better.

- Fourth goal: Do more creative things, I use to write poetry and was working on a sci fi novel a well as a fantasy novel. I video tape everything and would love to be able to editing pieces together to share with family and friends. I need to get back to being creative.

- Fifth goal: To finish updating my website. I recently purchased Geekyfanboy.com and I’m slowly transferring my personal website from Yahoo to that site. I hope to have it up and done with in a few months.

- Sixth goal: To be a better human being. To care more, to love more, to be a patient and kind person.

Life is way to short to sit around and complain about how things are so unfair. You never know if this is your last breath.. and if it is I want to make sure I left this life knowing I loved, lived, and laughed to my fullest.

Here’s to a wonderful 2009

A Look Back at 2008

As this year comes to a close I wanted to take a quick look back at 2008. This year has seen many highs as well as many lows.


Of course the best thing that happened in 2008 was Harry and I getting married, it was a dream of a lifetime and it was as ever beautiful and geeky as we planned. His family visited during that time and I got to meet Harry’s mother Zita, sister Gerda, her son Leonhard and her fiancé Bernd. All were wonderful, kind and loving people.

Another high for 2008 was going to Star Trek The Tour, three days of Star Trek geekiness and Harry and I loved every minute.

Another high was getting my first job for a network show, America’s Toughest Jobs aired on NBC for one season only but it was a fun experience and it lead to my current job on Deadliest Catch for Discovery.

And a really good high was the election of Barack Obama for our next President of the United States. Not only because he is our first black President and a Democrat it’s because when he talks you actually believe him. Many from the JFK generation said when he spoke he moved you. That is how I felt for the first time listening to Obama speak. Great things are ahead for this country.

And with that said now to the lows of 2008. Of course the biggest low at least for me personally is the passing of Prop 8, the gay marriage ban in California. This fight is far from over, one day folks will understand that all people should have equal rights.

Another low is our economy, people losing their jobs, houses and retirement funds. This hasn’t effect me directly but it has affected many of my friends and family.

Luckily for me the highs have outweighed the lows and 2008 was a pretty great year.

With a new President let’s hope he can start to re-build this great country of ours.. only time will tell.