Marian Call House Concert

Today is the day I've been waiting for the past few months. Marian Call is performing at my house. It all started with a text that I received from my buddy Luis asking if I was interested in hosting a Marian Call house concert. I didn't hesitate to say yes. I've seen her in concert several times and love her music. The next task was getting folks to come out to my place for it. My goal was to get 30 to 35 people for the concert. That way Marian would have a decent chance of getting some donations and making this concert worth the trip. Slowly but surely the guest list grew and soon we hit the 35 guests mark. I was excited. Then the week of the concert we started to lose people for various reasons and I understand things come up and so on but we still had about 30 people coming. Well that was until the day before and the day of the event. Suddenly it was like a mass exodus and 11 people dropped out at the last minute. That left 19 guests for this Marian Call house party, a far cry from the 35 that I thought I had only a few weeks ago. Again I'm not upset and I understand things come up I'm just disappointed in myself at not being able to gather a large enough group of friends to hit my goal.

Anyways.. my buddy Brett came over last night to help me get things set up in the morning. I only had a few things to do. Wanted to water the trees, pull some weeds, clean up the kitchen area and master bathroom. I also needed to go shopping and pick up some water, chips and soda. We were done around 1pm and folks started to show up. Soon the majority of the people were here and then Marian and her guitarist Bryan arrived. We agreed upon a spot for them to set up and then everyone helped bring in their equipment. Soon we were ready to go. A few more people arrived and we took our seats and the concert began. She sang for the next hour or so before taking a break to sell some CD's and sign some autographs. We chatted and snacked for about 30 minutes and then they did another 30 to 45 minute set. She did new stuff and classic songs. It was fantastic.

One of many things I love about Marian is audience participation, like "Shark Week". I love that she's so interactive with her audience.

Once the show was over she and Bryan hung out with us for the rest of the night. We talked, played some Card Against Humanity and Space Team. As it was hitting 9pm I realized there were still a about 12 people here so I suggested making spaghetti for dinner, it's something that I have a lot of and it feeds alot. As I made the pasta and sauce, Marian grilled some veggies to mix into the sauce and my friend Rebecca helped with the bread. We had dinner ready in no time. After dinner we talked for a bit more and then the party started to come to an end.

Though we didn't get as many people as I was expecting or hoping for it was still a very fun an intimate concert. Thanks Marian for choosing my house, thanks to Luis for connecting Marian and I and thanks to all those who came the enjoy the music, Robert, Jes, Aaron, Dallas, Luis, Doug, Rupert, Becca, Will, Tamar, Anne, Andrew, Angelique, Troy, Nicki, Rebecca, Steve and a special thanks to Brett who helped me set up, go shopping and clean up afterwards.. Thanks to you all for making this a great day.

You can check out more pictures from the concert HERE.

Tattoos & Dragons

Got up around 8am, made some breakfast (pancakes) then headed out to my brothers for a tattoo party. Both Robert and I needed to get a touch up on several of our tattoos. My buddy Moose, the one who actually did my three tattoos was coming over to my brother's today to do tattooing all day. We needed to be there at noon because we had to leave by 3pm to get to our D&D session today and it's about an hour and a half away from my brother's place.

We got there a little early and hung out with my brother's family while we waited. It's so cool how Robert had integrated himself into my family. This was the first time Robert was at my brother's house so Mike had to show him his Star Wars room and his many many arcade games.

Moose arrived and after eating lunch we got started around 1pm. Robert was first as I wanted to make sure he got his tattoo fixed first just in case we ran out of time. His fix took about an hour and the result are like night and day. He had gotten Sonic the Hedgehog symbol on his forearm last year. But the guy who did it, didn't do a great job, so Robert asked him to fix it.. and he did. Or I should say he didn't. Still looked like sloppy work. So Moose went at it and I think Robert was extremely happy with the end result. It's much sharper and darker and looks amazing.

My turn was next and I have having Moose touch up my Lord of the Rings tattoo that he did last year for me. There was this small area that I felt didn't get enough red. Well Moose had something else in mind and did about half my yellow over again, made it much richer and he did all the red and made it look more like it was burning through my skin.. I love it. This time around the line work was killing me. I had to keep telling myself to breath. I don't know why the pain was more intense then last time but man I was hurting.. the shading didn't hurt as much (which is different from last time).

We did mange to go over our exit time but it was worth it. We got out of my brother's place and headed to Dallas and Jes' place for D&D. We arrived about a half hour later then we planned but everyone was still just settling in so we didn't miss anything.

We jumped right into our continuing D&D campaign, Dash was doing okay this time. I mean he didn't die and that always a good thing but my buddy Nar almost did. There was lots of conflict on what to do next. Half of us wanted to get out of the temple and back to town and the other half wanted to continue to explore deep catacombs under the temple. In the end the group who didn't want to leave got into a bit a trouble (hence why Nar almost died) so some of us (excluding the rogues) came back to help out. In the end we did leave the temple and back to the town where Dash (that's me) got kidnapped and now has a knife against his throat... what will happen next.. we have to wait two weeks!!! Good stuff.. so much fun.

It's also my friend Jen's birthday, a large group are going out to drink and see a movie called The Room which I will not be partaking in because of my big plans tomorrow. Anyways before we called it a night we sat Jen down and we all sang to her (we had the lyrics printed out) to "Still Alive" the song from Portal (one of her favorite games) as the line was sung about the cake being so delicious and moist we presented her with a chocolate cheese cake that looked liked the cake from the game. Jen was over joyed, she was truly at a loses for words.. it was pretty epic. And I have to say that our little group weren't that bad of singers :)

I said my goodbyes and headed home. My buddy Brett was joining me as he was attending the event at my place tomorrow and was going to crash at my place and help me set up tomorrow morning.

Magic Mountain Time!!!

Today I went to Six Flags Magic Mountain with my friends Josh and Nicole. But before I left I got up early (6:30am) and worked on my next MASH 4077 podcast as it's due to be released on Monday July 1st and I won't have any free time the next few days. Luckily for me Josh and Nicole were running late so I got to not only finish my MASH podcast but I also manage to clean up the house a bit for this weekend.

I got to Magic Mountain around 11am and I couldn't believe how packed it was. Not only was it packed but it was hot and I mean HOT, 110f. I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to physically stay out in that sun all day. I planned to just hang out with them for a few hours but honestly once your body acclimates to the temperature it's not that bad.. I mean it's hot and you feel gross but after a while it doesn't bother you.

We rode a total of about seven roller coasters (Revolution, Viper, Roaring Rapids, Ninja, Superman, Jet Stream and Apocalypse) from Noon to 11:30am to 7:30pm. We didn't want to stand in the unspecified time line for the new roller coaster Full Throttle. It was such a made house, figured I'll go again when it's not so busy after the newness wears off.

All in all it was a fun, though extremely hot time at Six Flags Magic Mountain.. Thanks Nicole for the invite.

I stopped by Taco Bell and picked up some dinner and got home just in time for Robert to arrive. He is crashing at my place tonight as we are getting up early and heading out to my brothers for a tattoo party (both of us are getting tattoo's touched up).

Twitter, Pipes and Buffy

Today I noticed that I lost about 7 followers on Twitter in the past 24 hours, I'm not sure why. It could be Twitter cleaning out spam bots or it could be folks who aren't enjoying what I'm having to say. Regardless you try and not let it effect you but it always does for a few minutes at least, but then it passes. I made the mistake of complaining about it on twitter and kind of got a little backlash with some complaining that I really have nothing to complain about, since I have over 2400 followers. What they don't understand is that Twitter and all of social media is very important to podcasters. It's our main source to getting news out there about our podcasts. I may have just over 2400 followers but more is always better. Plus I have been stalled at trying to get to 2500 followers for about six months and I was finally showing some movement and got to 2462 but now I'm dropping again. When it comes to social media and podcasting, be it followers on Twitter or Likes on your Facebook Page, more is always better.

Went to Lowes today and picked up two more repair kits for my busted water well pipe as well as a portable sauntering iron as my last resort. As my previous repair didn't take and my well pump has been off for about three days, I didn't have much hope for this quick fix idea.. but to my surprise the very first one I tired (cheapest of the group) worked great and now my well pipe is sealed, the well pump is back on pumping water and not a drop of water coming out of the pipe.. woohoo.. now I can return the two items that I didn't have to work and get my money back.. which is always a good thing.

If you're a regular reader of my blog you may have noticed that I didn't blog about Buffy Wednesday that's because it was pushed until today.. Buffy Thursday. Drove down to my Robert's place, we ordred some pizza and wings and continued out Buffy Rewatch (for me) and 1st time (for Robert). We started tonights viewing with S7 Ep 15 "Get it Done" Buffy Summers introduces Principal Wood to the rest of the crew and he gives her a bag that he got from his mother. One of the girls commits suicide after talking to the First. Buffy uses the set of shadow figures in the slayer's bag to trigger a portal. On the other side, she meets the Shadow Men, who tell her of the origin of the Slayer and offer to infuse her with more power. She refuses upon discovering the cost. They leave her with a terrifying vision.

I liked this episode. It delves more into how the slayer was created. It also shows us what exactly the first evil has waiting for our heroes.. and it terrifies Buffy.

Next up is S7 Ep 16 "Storyteller" "Storyteller" refers to Andrew Wells, who became a pseudo-member of the Scooby Gang after being one of the The Trio, Buffy's enemies in Season Six, and has been held hostage at since Summers' home since early in the season. Andrew composes a video documentary narrating the apocalyptic adventures of Buffy and the Scooby Gang.

Fun episode, Robert mention how much he is enjoying the character development for "once bad guy" Andrew and I agree with him. I love the idea of documenting Buffy and all her deeds. I mean I'd be doing the exact same thing if I was in his shoes. Lots of humor in this episode.

We then watched S7 Ep 17 "Lies My Parents Told Me" The Scooby Gang investigates Spike's trigger. Robin Wood and Giles team up behind Buffy's back.

Been waiting for this episode.. a god Spike back story episode. And of course Woods finally confronts Spike about killing his mother. Spiked looked like he was done for but then suddenly old Spike is back and almost kills Woods. And Buffy is so pissed at Giles for trying to deceive her. 

And the final episode of the night was S7 Ep 18 "Dirty Girls" A group of Bringers chase a new Potential into the grasp of Caleb, an evil villain in priest's clothing. He gives her a message for the Slayer, burns her, stabs her, and throws her out of the car. Willow and Faith return to Sunnydale and find the injured girl, who tells Buffy that Caleb says he has something of hers. Buffy gathers a group of dismayed Potentials for an attack against Caleb after she and Faith discover his stronghold. The attack is a disaster; Caleb easily overpowers the whole group, including Buffy, Spike and Faith, killing two potentials and seriously injuring Xander. The terrified survivors are taken to the hospital and Buffy reflects on the debacle.

First of all Nathan Fillion!!!!  I knew he showed up at the end of Buffy but couldn't remember what episode. Also we get the return of Faith which I completely forgot about so that was a happy surprise. This was a great episode, it really puts Buffy to the test and she fails. We lose two potential slayers and many are injured including poor Xander who loses an eye. Good stuff all around.. it's setting everything up nicely for the huge showdown coming in the season finale.

Speaking of season finale.. we are only 4 episodes of way from ending our Buffy Rewatch/1st. We should be able to wrap up this series with our next viewing. Robert and I have been talking about which series to do next... in the running is of course Angel, Smallville or Babylon 5. We made watch several series at once.. it's not like we have to watch nothing but one series. Will have to make that decision in the coming weeks.. can't wait for our next Buffy night and finishing off this fantastic series.

La Tasca - Maiden Street, Covent Garden

Apparently it's been a long time since I met up with my friend Miss Money. Well, I last saw her in March, so it's not that long really! It was my decision to decide where to go to, and so I gave her the choice of what to eat... Korean, Japanese, Spanish, Indian, Italian or Thai... She hates spicy foods unfortunately. :( Lots of my close friends don't seem to like spicy foods!

In the end it was a choice of Japanese or Spanish. We chose Spanish. Miss Money has not had Spanish food before!! And the only place I know of that does Spanish food is La Tasca served by actual Spanish people (there are other places, but I have never been to them). The one near Oxford Street is closed and the one in St Jame's Street was a bit far from where were meeting up. So we ended up in Covent Garden. It's not hard to find La Tasca in Maiden Street. When you see TGI Friday's, then you know you are near it.

From the window we thought there was no one inside, as no one was seated at the window. But as we went in, there is a bigger dining area at the back. (Sorry for the quality of the photos... not great with an LG phone - but I now have a secondhand Samsung SG4 phone which I bought as my previous phone wasn't insured :( ... Now I have to start saving big time!). 

At the back of La Tasca in Maiden Street, Covent Garden

I have only been to La Tasca twice, and usually the people I'm with order for the entire table. I think Miss Money wanted to spend less, but eat different things. I couldn't recommend much except for the seafood paella and the chorizo. So in the end, we had the "Chef's Recommends". That meant we would spend £15 each minus drinks.

All the food we had for the "Chef's Recommends"

My diet coke... Not sure why I pictured this XD

What's in the Chef's Special? Quite a variety of things. Anybody who hasn't had Spanish food I think should have this as it introduces spicy and non-spicy elements of Spanish food...

This dish was a bit spicy for Miss Money, but she ate a lot of  it!

Spicy Roasted Vegetable Cassolo with Almond

These were nice. A very tasty filling, and reminded Miss Money of chicken kievs. :)

Croquetas de Pollo

 Miss Money and I thought the burgers were a bit dry... Overcooked?

Home-made beefburgers

 This was good. It didn't need the sauce. It was salty, tasty and juicy enough. The fish inside was fresh too...

Pescado Blanco Frito

The Pollo Marbella was ok... I liked the chicken, but this is quite a saucy dish, and we could have had some bread to accompany with this.

Pollo Marbella

 I like paella. But this is ridiculous and small for my appetite. :( I like loads and loads of paella!! Next time, I'm going to order a big one! :P

Paella Del Dia

 I liked the patatas. Nice and spicy for me but not for Miss Money.

Patatas Bravas

Miss Money eats slow, really slow, so I had to try and eat slow too, which I got full quite easily... But I had that feeling that I would have wanted a bit more. Like those big paellas! ^_^

In the end, service was ok, not the greatest. We got seated by the door, with tall chairs and by the small steps where you can feel the waiters and waitresses just flying about trying to get to each customer. I have not been to Spain yet, so I don't know if Spanish restaurants are like this. In the other La Tasca's I have been to I didn't get this feeling about the service.

Total cost came to £36 something, including drinks. A little expensive for what we had. :(

Here's one of my Instagram pics whilst being at Trafalgar Square... Was catching up with her about work and life...

At Trafalgar Square... This is the column that gets different designs on it every few months...

And here's our desert at Boba Jam ^_^

Yummy bubble drinks at Boba Jam!

My geeky rating: 3.5/5

Good points:

- Ok choices on the Chef Special, but I needed more, but not Miss Money. She was really full.

Bad points:

- Didn't entirely like the table we sat at as the food got cold too quickly

- Hasty service - Miss Money was going to tip them, but didn't in the end!

- Would consider it expensive - anything over £10 even when I'm paying half and the food doesn't completely fill me I consider it expensive.

Address: 63-66 St Martin's Ln, London WC2N 4JS

Telephone: 020 7240 2011 

Website: www.latasca.com/

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A Good Day To Be Gay!!

Big news today... the Supreme Court over turned D.O.M.A. (The Defensive Marriage Act) Which stated that a  marriage can only be legal between a man and a woman . So even though some states made gay marriage legal in the eyes of the Federal government it was not.

D.O.M.A. effected my relationship with Harry as Harry was from Austria and we could not get married and request a spousal green card. So instead Harry stayed in this country illegally rather then traveling back and forth every few months. It's something every bi-national couple has to deal with. But being here illegally and not able to work or do much put a strain on our relationship which of course ended after an 8 years. If  D.O.M.A  had not been there who know what our future would have looked like. So this ruling means a lot to me. It may be too late for Harry and I but there are thousands of bi-national couples who no longer have to break the law or travel back and forth every few months to be with their loved ones.

Of course you have all the haters (religious conservatives mostly) all over the news saying now that D.O.M.A. is gone people will start marring animals and inanimate objects... so stupid. All this means is that people who are in love can now get married and enjoy the full benefits that our government offers.

The other big news.. especially for Californians, Prop 8 appeal was rejected by the Supreme Court. Which means the lower courts decisions stands. Some back story.. Gay marriage was legalized in California a few years back, then they put an intuitive on the ballot, Prop 8 and unfortunately it passed with 52% of the vote. So after only a few months gay marriages was illegal once again. Then some couples took Prop 8 to court and fought to get it over turned. After a long court battle it was deemed unconstitutional and was over turned. Well the haters quickly filed an appeal to the Supreme Court and while they were waiting the ban on gay marriages still stood. We waited and waited until finally today the Supreme Court refused to take case which means the lower court decision that it's unconstitutional stands and gay marriages in California will resume once again.

As of July 2013, thirteen states (California, Connecticut, Delaware, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington), the District of Columbia, and five Native American tribes have legalized same-sex marriage.

So only 13 of 50 states but hey we're getting there.. baby steps... I mean just ten years ago we had no states and if we can get another 13 in ten years I'd be super happy with that. And I'm happy that if I do find another partner to share my life with, either local or abroad I can now legally marry them and have it recognized by my State and Country for what it is.. LOVE.

101 in 1001: attend a music festival

Earlier this month, I attended my first ever music festival.

My friend Michelle and I had wanted to go to one for years. We both are really passionate about music and therefore thought that a weekend dedicated purely to music would be like dying and going to heaven. 

After last year's Rockness festival line-up (You had us at Biffy Clyro) we decided that couldn't miss out on going to a music festival in 2013.

A few of our friends (Sara, Dougal, 'Drew, Andy, Bev and Sarah) were already going, and said that it would be okay for us to tag along too. 

In May, Kyle decided that Rockness was something that he definitely wanted to come to, so he joined our little gang as well.

First thing we discovered upon getting there, was that Michelle and I couldn't put up a tent if our lives depended on it. I tried to put all of the poles into those wee K'nex style slots, and ended up aimlessly holding this huge rod. I turned to speak to her and almost knocked a couple of people over with the rod whilst doing so.

Everyone seemed to be quite tipsy by the time we got our tents all set up. The majority of us put on sun screen, because we knew we'd be spending a lot of our time in the sunshine. Not all of us did however...

BEV: Kyle, you're getting quite red... are you not going to put on some sun screen?

KYLE: No! I'm half Italian, and Italian's don't burn!

BEV: But you'r....

KYLE: I'm half Italian!

The next morning, Kyle comes out of his tent, looking somewhat embarrassed and very, very visibly burnt.

 Ouch.

ME: Your bottom half may be Italian, but your top half is definitely Scottish.

I couldn't speak though, because later that day, I too got burned.

 

Haha... life.

Music wise, it was okay. My highlights were without a doubt Dog is Dead, Newton Faulkner and Jessie Ware. Most disappointing were Skream and Benga.

They were like:

*Rage against the machine were playing*

SKREAM AND BENGA: OKAY ROCKNESSSSS! SING ALONG!

RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE: Killing... *Skream and Benga cut out the music*

DOUGAL: They clearly only know the empty part of empty orchestra (karaoke means empty orchestra).

The majority of the line-up were simply not my cup of tea. If you love dance music, then it would be right up your street. I'm a good old fashioned band lover however. I enjoy watching talented people playing instruments, or someone with a great voice singing in front of a live band.

Really, what I'm saying, is that I'd like to see the Rock put back in Rockness. 

My highlight of Rockness as a whole would probably be just hanging out with some of my favourite people, in our wee camping chairs.

Dougal and Andy didn't bring camping chairs, so they bought two for just under twenty pounds at one of the stalls.

Dougal broke his within the hour.

He was just sitting on his chair, minding his own business when... 

SNAP.

The armrest broke off.

DOUGAL: It doesn't matter, I don't need the armrest anyw...

The bit supporting his back broke too, and it turned into a recliner.

 DOUGAL: Well, the only bit that I really need is thi...

The bit supporting his weight broke too, and it turned into a death-trap. 

I'm trying to think of some of the conversations we had at the tent, but the only thing coming to mind is:

BEV: Well, Pingu's shit today. Let's call the talking clock.

Speaking of shit...

The portaloos have scarred me for life.

They can make for some funny moments (Sarah opened one door, only to be confronted with a man's bare ass, causing her to scream) but for the most part, they were just disgustingly bad.

For example, I went into one that had shit smeared all over the walls.

Literally...

All over.

I haven't been the same woman since that day.

Anyway, Michelle was feeling really ill on the Sunday morning, so we headed home...

Sharing a taxi with a lovely Glaswegian drug dealer on our way.

...

Make of that what you will.

Lauren xxx

Disneyland with Christopher

Today I got up and headed to Disneyland with my buddy Christopher. This was going to be his last trip to Disneyland for a while since he's moving up to the Bay area. Though I have known Christopher for over ten years and we are both huge Disney fans this will be the first time we've have gone to Disneyland together.

We got there around noon which is pretty late for me and it was pretty busy for a weekday but then Christopher reminded me that school is out for the summer. First thing I did when we got there was grab a corn dog for lunch. Christopher went over to the Tomorrow Land food court to get his lunch. We sat in the Tomorrow Land food court area and watched the Jedi Training event that they do there every few hours. Afterwards we headed to Star Tour as that is one ride I tend to do every time I visit Disneyland.

Afterwards we rode a few more rides but like I said it was busy and lines were long. We headed over to Disney California Adventures around 5pm and that place was packed as well. We headed to Tower of Terror but it was an 80 minute wait so we skipped it. We did ride Mator's Tractor Pull ride as Christopher had never ridden that.. he liked it. We only did a few more rides there before calling it quits for the day around 8:30pm. Before we left Christopher wanted to hit up the World of Disney store.. I've never been there and OMG is that a huge place. Lot's and lots of awesome Disney stuff.. now I know why I haven't been in there.. I could spend a ton of money. We did manage to find a Sully hat to match my Wazowski hat. Anyways Christopher got a shirt he wanted and we called it a night.

Thought we didn't ride a ton of rides it was still and awesome time hanging with Christopher at one of our favorites places. I can't wait to visit him up in the Bay area, I love San Fransisco and haven't been there years. 

Helping a Friend

So I got up this morning and checked to see if the fix I did to the well worked.. I turned on the well pump and immediately water started leaking through the patch.. then it started spraying everywhere as if the patch wasn't even on it. I quickly turned off the well pump again, signed and headed back inside to work on plan B.

Today I was heading over to my buddy Christopher's place to help him pack for his big move up to the Bay Area. I got there around noon and he assigned me to pack up his kitchen. I worked on it for a few hours before we headed out to lunch, when we got back I continued to finish the kitchen. I was almost done when it was dinner time. We headed out to Chevy's for some much needed dinner. Who know packing was such hard work. When we got back I finished up the kitchen and then moved on to a few odds and ends before calling it a night.

I crashed at his place as we were going to Disneyland the next day.

Life's Curve Ball

So today started off with a huge smack in the face. As many of you know I have been jobless for a while now and really have worked only 4 months out of the past 24 months. So needless to say I've used up all my savings and funds are extremely low at this time, in fact I had to request some money from a family member (which I hate doing). This family member was my safety net, they ensured me that no matter what I would not lose my house, they would help me out financially until I could get back on my feet. Well I got a call today from this "family member" and they informed me that they were not going to help me, for reasons I won't go into here but needless to say they didn't make any sense... at least to me. So one week away from my mortgage being due and bills being due I must now scramble and figure out how I'm going to pay for things and not lose my house. Talk about blood pressure going up and the stress mounting. I got off the phone and immediately started to have chest pains. Panic was setting in and all I could do was tell myself to calm down and to breath.

I really didn't have much time to think about what I was going to do because I was recording six new episodes of my MASH 4077 Podcast with my buddies Al and Meds at noon. We were also having some "guest" co-hosts joining us. These are listeners who entered a raffle and won spots as co-hosts.

Even though I was in panic mode the recording went great, we had very few technical issues and the conversations were fun and entertaining. There will be a few editing challenges but I'm up for them. 

Finished recording around 2:30pm, said my goodbyes and let the panic resume. I quickly checked to see how much I had left in the bank. There's nothing left in my savings.. a hundred or so in paypal and about a hundred in cash. I was freaking out.. for the first time in over 10 years I didn't know what I was going to do. I mean I lived pay check to pay check all through my teens, 20's and into my 30's but I've never had a house mortgage, especially a large house mortgage.

Four o'clock came around and I went outside to water my trees because my watering system is broke and I can't afford to fix it.. especially now.  You know that saying.. "when it rains, it pours". Well I got out near the well for my water and noticed that one of the pipes had split open and water was spraying all over the place. I quickly turned off my well pump to stop the water from spraying out. Luckily for me I have a 500 gallon reserve tank so I should be okay for a while if needed.

There were five or six small holes in the metal pipe. I quickly jumped in my car and headed to Lowes. Remember when I go anywhere it's at least a 20 to 30 minute drive. All I'm thinking is I'm wasting gas that I soon won't be able to fill up.

Got to Lowes, found the plumbing area and looked for a solution. I found a metal pipe fix-it repair pack for $11 bucks. Looked fairly reliable so I got it. I got home and it was starting to get dark so I quickly applied the patch and would let it dry overnight and test it out tomorrow morning and see if the leak was fixed.. cross your fingers.

Also while I was dealing with my well issues I remembered that I do have emergency credit cards (2 of them with a fairly large limits). So my plan B is to charge as many bills as I can to my credit card and then get a cash advance for my mortgage. I don't want to go into debt again but this will at least give me another month (July) to find a job or come up with another plan.

The panic and stress isn't gone but it's defiantly more manageable now that I have an idea of what I'm going to do. Life is funny sometimes.. it knocks you down and just for fun it's gives you a good kick in the balls.

Run Lola Run

I've always enjoyed this movie, it's a seemingly simple idea on the surface but when you get right down to it a lot of though had actually been put into this film and despite it's obvious low budget I think it works really well, it certainly goes to show you don't need to spend ten of millions of dollars to make a clever and enjoyable film.

One slightly annoying thing about the Blu-ray release is the fact that the disc defaults to the English dub instead of the original language, being lazy I left it in English for about 10 minutes, it has to be one of the worst dubbing jobs I've heard in ages, I guess if you wanted a bit of a laugh it might be worth giving it a listen.

I really enjoyed seeing Run Lola Run again and it looked pretty good on Blu-ray and it was so ridiculously cheap as well, there really is no excuse for not having seen it anymore, not when you can own the movie for slightly more than the cost of renting it ( in Australia anyway ).

Westworld

I watched Westworld on Blu-ray for the first time last night and I was pretty impressed with how good it looked for a movie of it's age and despite the many times I've seen it I still enjoyed seeing it yet again, hopefully Futureworld looks as good in it's HD release.

A nice little surprise was the inclusion of the pilot to the spin-off  TV series Beyond Westworld, I'd heard the series was pretty bad and the pilot lived up to it's reputation but I've always thought it was a shame more wasn't done with this franchise.

Maybe it's time for a Westworld remake.

Beyond Westworld.

I'm a big fan of the movie Westworld and it's sequel Futureworld but one of the few shows I have never seen was the spin-off TV series Beyond Westworld.

I was perfectly aware of the show's reputation for being pretty bad but I've just finished watching Logan's Run the series and well it couldn't have been worse than that ( to be fair Logan's Run does have a couple of really good episodes, it also has a whole bunch of ordinary and some outright terrible ones.

Recently I picked up Westworld and Futureworld on Blu-ray and was pleasantly surprised to discover that the pilot for Beyond Westworld was included on the Westworld disc.

It's an odd series based on what I can gather from the pilot, it seems to take place soon after the end of Westworld and pretty much ignores Furureworld but at the same time explores and expands on ideas from that movie and yes it was pretty bad.

One day I might hunt down the remaining five episodes out of a morbid curiosity but I think most people can safely give it a miss.

IT Crowd, Thrones and a Friend

Today my good friend Jen came over to hang out. We haven't had a one on one hangout in quite a while and it was long over due. She got here around noon and he headed out to El Pollo for some lunch. While we were out we grabbed some snacks as we planned to chill out and watch some TV.

Jen introduced me to The IT Crowd, I had heard of it but didn't really know much about it until we watched the 1st season at our last "hangout". I watched season two and some of three back in November of 2012, so today we are going to finish season 3 and watch season 4. When season 4 was over I was sad that that was going to be it.. but I did hear that they are doing at 40 minute one-off episode to wrap things up. It's not as good as a full season five but will take what we can get. Any amount of Roy, Moss and Jen is always a good thing.

The IT Crowd is such a funny show, Moss was my favorite when I first started watching but I've really taken a liking to Roy (I mean he's so adorable). I use to really dislike Jen but she's grown on me but I still very much dislike the owner of the company. I was disappointed to see quite a few episodes in season 4 that revolved around this very unlikable character (including the last episode of the series).

After the IT Crowd, we watched some more Game of Thrones. Jen loaned me her blu-rays of seasons 1 and 2, but I've only been able to really watch the first two episodes of season one. So we continued to watch starting with Season 1 Ep 3.

I have heard that it's extremely slow at times and I agree but like that. It's all about the characters and building the drama. I read 2/3'ds of the first book so I kind of have an idea of what's going on so maybe that helps with the pacing. But so far I'm loving it.

We took a break and headed to Vasquez Rocks for a hike, we figured since we were snacking on donuts and chips we should try and counter that with a good hike. We hike Vasquez for over 45 minutes. It was beautiful outside and a very nice hike. 

Back home we continued with Game of Thrones.. S1 Ep 4. We made some dinner that we had purchased earlier from the store and then watched S1 Ep 5. Again, loving the storytelling and the characters. I know Jen could have kept going and to be honest so could I but it was already pass 11pm and I figured this was a good place to stop.. I'm halfway through season 1. I can't wait to get back to it and finish off season 1 and move on to season 2.

Thanks Jen for a fun day of awesome TV shows and great company.. hope it's not another year before we can do this again.

Knights of the Guild Ep 51

My trim painting continued.. nothing to exciting.. just painting.

I did manage to edit and release the next episode of Knights of the Guild podcast.

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

This episode is all about Greg Aronowitz, we sit down and talk sets and props for Season 6 of The Guild.

It's always fun talking with Greg as he's been in the industry for so long and has worked with some of the biggest names in Hollywood. He has the best stories. 

Hearts can heal project

The hearts can heal project is a week long project taking a look at six serious issues (domestic abuse, bullying, self-harm, eating disorders, mental disorders and suicide). I wrote a blog post for each of these issues in an attempt to educate others on them, and also give those suffering hope that things can and will get better. 

If you'd like to take a look at the project, then you can do so by clicking here. 

(Five out of the six posts have been published at the time of writing this. The sixth will be published tomorrow)

I don't mind if you don't share the posts or the blog itself, but if you could raise awareness of the issues themselves by posting some of the facts on your social networking sites, then I'd be very grateful. 

All of the issues being discussed are terribly stigmatised and the only way that we can stop this stigma is by talking openly about them. No judgement, no fear.

New Look!!!

So I decided to change my look up a bit, I shaved the beard and dyed my gray hair. I've had the beard "look" for over 10 years and only shaved it off when I would cosplay as a Hobbit. But it never lasted more then a few days. I posted a before and after pic on Facebook and twitter and the majority, I'd say about 70% said they liked the beardless Kenny and 30% said they liked the bearded Kenny.

I think I so look younger without the beard, especially since there is so much gray in it. But I think I look fatter without the beard as it can hide my double chin.. so it's a trade off... youth for fatness. I'm going to try it for a while and see how it goes. I mean SDCC is coming up and I'd be shaving anything as I plan on cosplaying again as Frodo/Bilbo Baggins.

Productivity wise I continued to paint the trim on the house. It's a process that I have gotten down but still it feels like I'm moving so slow. But I'm happy that I'm moving forward, slow or not it's getting done.

It's Buffy Time

So it's been a few weeks since Robert and I had our Buffy night rewatch/1st time so we were both excited to pick that back up again tonight. We are actually in the middle of the final season, season seven. We started the night off with S7 Ep 12 "Potential" Willow learns from her contacts that there is another Potential Slayer in Sunnydale. She casts a reveal spell that makes all the Scooby Gang (except Buffy, who is not home) think this new Potential is Dawn. Dawn runs into her friend Amanda, who tells her that all sorts of strange things have been happening to her. The two go to the school to investigate. Their encounter with vampires and Bringers leads Dawn to realize that Amanda is the actual Potential, not her. Dawn and Amanda escape and Buffy, Spike, and Xander arrive in time to defeat the Bringers.

A good episode, you really believe that Dawn is a potential and it makes sense as they used the blood of the slayer to create her.. but of course you find out it's Amanda who happen to be standing on the other side of the front door when Willow did the spell. This is one of the very few episode that I actually enjoyed Xander. His speech to Dawn about being the "sidekick" with no powers and just being "support" was touching and truthful. It was a great moment between Dawn and Xander.  Also I was shocked with Spike and Buffy left the four potential in the crypt with the vampire to fend for themselves.

Next up was S7 Ep 13 "The Killer In Me" Willow must face her own demons after her first kiss with Kennedy has an unexpected, magical result. Buffy gets in touch with the government about Spike's chip, which is malfunctioning.

Another good episode, it was good seeing Willow deal with the death of Tara finally and move on with Kennedy. I mean I loved Willow and Tara but Kennedy is very sweet as well. She'll be good for Willow. And finally Spike gets that stupid chip taken out of his head. I didn't like Giles reaction to this news. Buffy did the right thing. I liked that Xander, Anya, Dawn and Andrew headed to the desert to capture Giles, who they think is the 1st evil.

And our final episode of the night S7 Ep 14 "First Date" Principal Wood asks Buffy out to dinner, to which she accepts partly because she likes him and partly because she is intrigued as to what he really is. Xander also agrees to go out at night with Lissa, a girl he meets at a tool demo somewhere in Sunnydale. Things go very differently for them. Buffy finds out Robin Wood is in fact the son of a Slayer, while Xander's date turns out to be a demon. Willow receives an SOS text message from Xander and she and Spike round up Buffy and Wood to rescue Xander. Wood finds out Spike is a vampire. Later, The First shows itself to Wood in the guise of his dead mother and tells him it was Spike who killed her.

Lots happen in this episode, the reveal of Principle Woods being the son of the New York Slayer and him finding out that Spike it the one that killed her.. bit stuff. Xander and he bad luck with women continue, I like that Andrew didn't let the 1st talk in into being bad again.. Andrew is really trying to be a "good guy".

We're more then halfway through this final season. I'm happy that it's almost over as we get to move on to something new but I'm also sad to see it end because it's BUFFY!!! I think our next series to watch is going to be Smallville, which I'm excited for as I only saw the first two and a half seasons.

House Woes

Owning a house is great most of the times.. but man sometime it just sucks.

I continue my slow and steady painting of the window trim around my house. I have lots of windows, it takes so long just taping off everything, painting and then re-painting. I figure it's going to take me at least another week to finish all the trim including the top trim around the house and the trim around the garage.

A new house issue showed up today, while painting I realized that my plants and trees looked a little bit more brown then they should be during summer time, come to find out that my watering system isn't working. I don't know how long it's been out but from the look of my plants and tress it's been a while. :(

First thing I did was grab the hose and begin watering everything... that took about an hour (I have lots of plants and trees). I then went on to search for where the main control was for the watering system. I know we have two in the back of the house that water the back area, that we really don't use. They run on batteries so my idea is that the batteries must be dead for the front sytem.. my only problem is I don't know where the control is.  

I emailed Harry as he dealt with the water system in the past and he told me where to find the device. I checked it out and and come to find out that it's powered through electricity so that crushed my plan to fix it with a battery. I should have known it wasn't going to be that easy. I re-started and re-programed everything and tried to run some tests but I couldn't get it to work. I looked up the company who made it and they are still around so it looks like I'm going to have to call and have someone come out to take a look at the entire system... which of course means more $$$ that I don't have being jobless. So for now I'll continue watering everything by hand. It's a pain in the butt but I have to revive these plants and trees.. everything's gotta look great for when I put the house up on the market.

Tokyo Diner 東京ダイナー - London China Town

Ah Tokyo Diner 東京ダイナー. It's my second time coming to this place, first time I went there was with Miss Money and Mr Games and I think that was in the early 2000's... And if you have not read the last two posts, my phone is "lost" (to me it has been stolen). So there will be very minimal pictures in this post.

When I first dined here many years ago it was filled with many people. Sometimes I pass there and it's filled. But on this day that I went, it was a little empty until a bit later. I guess restaurants have their moments of quietness. This place has been in China Town for many years, since 1992 (it's boasted on their website), and I think they have changed their seating arrangements since then... I remembered the tables used to be tightly squashed together, and you could hardly pass through! I guess someone complained!

Taken on 29/06/2013

My receipt that I kept... 

Anyway, I dined there alone that day after watching The Story of Yonosuke. Was dying to find a place that made Japanese ramen, but unfortunately Tokyo Diner does not offer this. Instead they serve cold soba noodles. Not what I wanted... It took me a while to choose, so in the end I chose a favourite. Chicken Katsu Curry... Plus a bowl of cold cooked aubergines...

I started off with the aubergines (or eggplant as they call it in the USA and Japan), well it came first. It's called Aubergine Age Bitashi, and the aubergine is soaked in some cold dashi stock and served with a slice of bamboo root. I still remember the taste of it. It was a bit oily and had minimal soy sauce in it... Very tasty!! So instead of a picture, here's a YouTube video I found on how to make it... (well, it's something similar, there's no dashi stock used in this video). I want more of this! I might make my own if London decides to get hotter during the summer... (actually it already is!)...

Next came the curry. I noticed later that a few others had ordered the same dish!! Well, a curry dish anyway. It's an expensive dish for £10.60, whereas in other places I can get it for cheaper, but the carrots and potatoes were cut largely in this plate. I had a small amount of rice, and if you want more rice, I think you have to pay 50p more... The chicken katsu was slightly on the burnt side, but it still tasted good... And I should've had a bit more rice!

My chicken katsu curry taken from my Instagram online

So total cost came to £16.20 that's with a drink too... Green tea comes free, and they top it up for you.

If I dine there again in the nearest future, I will add some more pictures at the end!! Want to try the cold soba or a bento box next time plus have more cold aubergines!! ^_^

My geeky rating: 4/5

Good points:

- Nice friendly service

- Tasty cold aubergine

- Loved the interior designing and the way they have re-designed the seating plan
- Don't except tipping (I don't tip that much anyway)

Bad points:

- A little expensive for my liking 

- I wish they served ramen, I'm sure they could get more customers that way (but would it become a noodle bar?)...
- Chicken katsu was slightly burnt (or they may have used some old oil to fry it)

Website: www.tokyodiner.com

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