So over the last few days I have copious amounts of free time, sort of, while the workmen were trouncing through my apartment. They needed to completely rip out all the padding, dry the carpet, replace the padding and clean the carpet. The first two were done on Monday during the day, the last on Tuesday. This means that I had to sit and watch them do all this. Given that the entertainment unit was still hooked up, I managed to get in some web swinging with Spiderman 3 the game. There are so many reviews out there that are mixed feelings (kind of like how I am about the movie) so I am not going to bore you with the “this part could be better” crap. The coolest part about the game is the web swinging through New York. They rendered out a full Manhattan Island and it looks amazing. You can go down into the subway, ride a train, sling shot from the Bugle to Central park and it all is spectacular!

When Spidey encounters bad guys he has to do his standard hyper agile fighting style and that comes across in the game. Too many times I went through some button mashing and came across a move that I shouted out “Holy CRAP! That was cool!” The missions are interesting and help move the story along, but aren’t so long that you get tired of them. It’s nice because they are broken into parts. Each part advances the story line but isn’t too long, so you can do part 1 of this mission, and part 3 of that one.

Then there is Mary Jane.

There are a series of missions where you have to take Mary Jane for a “Thrill ride.” Now don’t get your hopes up, it’s a E rated game. In these missions, you basically are a shuttle service for MJ. She has an important appointment that she has to get to and instead of calling a cab (or getting that two timing rat Harry to fly her on his magical snowboard) she has to ride on your back. This wouldn’t be so bad if you were going straight to where she needs to go. Nooooo She wants you to Swing Low, close to the ground, then Swing High to the top of that building, now go really fast! The whole time she is screaming out what she wants you to do but yet you have a time limit and have to get her there before the clock runs out. But wait, there’s more! Along the way you collect hearts, when you do what she wants you collect hearts, and there are these big hearts you grab on your way past. If you don’t fill up on hearts before you get to the end point, you fail. So it’s bad enough I have to be her shuttle service, but now if she doesn’t love me enough by the end point, I fail.

Hey MJ, go take the subway like everyone else! I think I will go find Gwyn Stacy or Betty Brant!

Oh, the house is back to normal now. Sarah helped out and took Andrew to his Guitar lesson and Baseball game while I moved all the furniture back to where it was. Everything is back to the usual. Well, as much as you gat get to in my place!

Ok so the weekend was not all that bad. Really! Except for Sunday. No, wait, Sunday was really good to! It was nice and relaxing the whole day. We ended the day watching Children of Men on HD-DVD while Sarah (TG) worked on her paper. Then she put her foot down from the couch and started the chain of events that would lead me to the here and now where I am sitting at work with little to no sleep and a house that is a complete disaster area.

But I am getting ahead of myself.

Friday was Spiderman day! The new movie came out and I had to go see it! Sarah got off work at 9pm and we caught the 10:15 show at the Regal. As much as I wanted to wear the costume (and I am looking damn good in it now!) Sarah talked me out of it. Had it been the Midnight show the night prior, I probably would have done it. The movie was good. Not as good as number 2, but the CG was amazing, the fighting was great, even some of the base story lines were very comic book. I could have done with out the overload of cheese and as much as I like Venom, 1: they screwed up his lines (it’s WE hate spiderman, not I, you are two freaking voices!) and 2: I don’t know that there is a way you could bring that comic body type for Venom to the screen and have it not look off kilter. Outside of that, I liked it! Friday Rating = Great!

Saturday was a busy day with baseball and school work and such. It was also Free Comic book day so I broke routine and went on Sat instead of Sun. Also had Heather stop by to give her a ride to the airport Sunday morning. We hit up Don Pablo’s for Margaritas on Cinco De Mayo. Saturday rating = Good

Sunday was my relax day. I scheduled nothing for the day so that I could just relax, do some simple house stuff and just take a break. The last few weekends had been hectic and I needed some me time. So it was pool in the morning and just chillaxing at home. Doc came over and we did some voice recording for Episode 2. Sarah came over so we could watch Children of Men and it was just a nice night. So I will pause and give Sundays rating now. Sunday rating = Nice

Then, around 11pm Sarah put down her foot.

“Umm, the floor is wet!”

“Oh, something probably spilled, I’ll get a towel.”

“No, I think something is wrong”

It was then I noticed that water was flowing OVER her foot. We jumped up and started moving things faster than Barry Allen hyped up on Krispy Kreams. I called the Maintenance people and rushed them over. Apparently my Water heater blew and dumped it’s contents into my apartment, but yet the faucet figured “oh, the water heater is empty, I should keep filling it” so more and more water kept coming. When the guy got there and opened the closet to turn off the water, it was like out of a movie with all of it rushing out. He was there until about 3am completely replacing the water heater and vacuuming out all of the excess water. They came back around 10am the next morning and ripped out all of the padding and drying off the carpet. Everything that was in my living room and my bedroom is now crammed into other corners so there was room. We were stuck in a hotel last night where I slept for crap (cause you know I got so much sleep on Sunday night). Today they will be replacing pads, super cleaning the carpet and then I get to move everything back into place.

Sunday night, Monday Day rating = TEH SUCK!

This is an important fact to know before coming to the DC area. There is a LOT of walking involved! Not a little walking, not a few blocks, a LOT of walking. This last weekend I got a visit from my Long Lost sister. (I say that because she is lost in Fresno Clovis California) This is the first time she has come to visit me in like 13 years (Christmas didn’t count, wasn’t my place). So this was a very special visit. Gina has also never been to the DC area so it was a monumental occasion! (see what I did there?) She came into town because my Nephew got invited to play with his school orchestra at the Kennedy Center. She flew in as a surprise to see him and to visit me so we went and did the whirlwind DC tour!

I picked up Noah early on Saturday and brought him back to my place. Andrew had a baseball game that day so Noah got to see his cousin play (and win!). Afterwards I dropped them off and went to pick up Gina. She was flying into Dulles so it was only like 30 min. Noah had no clue that his mom was coming in so it was a huge surprise! Then we headed downtown. This is where the walking comes in. Gina wanted to visit the Capitol Building so that she could sing her “I’m just a bill” song so that required driving there first. I found a great place to park near there. She also wanted to get to the Lincoln memorial and see things along the way. I mentioned the amount of walking and she said it was ok. (I even reiterated it twice). Somewhere around the WWII memorial everyone started complaining about being tired of walking [grin]. We finally made it down to see Santa Lincoln and decided to grab a cab and take it back to the truck. We drove over to the Hard Rock and had a great dinner (I love my all access pass!) and then took Noah back to his Hotel and went home to crash.

Sunday was mostly just Gina and I. Andrew had some homework and such to take care of so after morning Pool we dropped him off and headed out. First stop was the comic store to Visit TG (and get comics, but mostly visit TG). We went downtown and tried to hit some museums but sadly most of them are close on Sunday. American History was being renovated and the rest just weren’t open. We did get to see the Top of the Old Post office and the White House. After that we went to Old Towne Alexandria where we walked through some antique stores and had some great Thai food. At one point we did try and stop by to see Noah. He was practicing with the orchestra and said he would be out for the rest of the evening so we went on our own.

Monday was the big day! We took our time getting up and got ready to head to the Kennedy Center. That place is huge! (and Parking ain’t cheap!) Noah’s group was up first and fourth so we got to see him twice. I even managed to sneak in a video camera so that I could tape the whole thing. I have both of his performances on tape now, including a few good close up’s of him. After the show we tried to hit the Daughters of The American Revolution museum and of course, it was closed. With all that walking behind us, we headed home to change clothes and relax for a bit. Then went down to Alexandria for a walk down King Street and Dinner with Doc and Diz. Doc didn’t believe that I would actually have family visit me so he needed proof. We had a great dinner at the Alexandria Fish Market and then took a small (very small) walk on the water front. At around 10:30 we called it quits and went home.

Tuesday was all relaxville we woke up late, I took Gina to visit my work. She got a little creeped out by the basement and the mushrooms. And the server room was a little intimidating. We went and picked up some more gifts for the boys back home and then headed back to wait for Andrew to get home from school. Gina got the chance to see Serenity (well, most of it anyways) and then we were off to Guitar practice before taking her to the airport! After dropping her off we went back to the house and collapsed!

What a weekend!

Santa?
Originally uploaded by wizzer2801.

So how hard would it be, and would I get in trouble if I were to sit on his lap and tell him what I want for christmas?

So many people have stepped up to help distribute the video (I guess that means they like it!) Here are some of the links:

LOTR Vault IGN
Stupid Hobbitsess Videos

Lord of the Rings Online Videos
Stupid Hobbitsess Episode 1
Stupid Hobbitsess Trailer

Youtube
Stupid Hobbitsess Episode 1
Stupid Hobbitsess Trailer

Myspace
Stupid Hobbitsess Episode 1
Stupid Hobbitsess Trailer

And hopefully soon on Machinima.com

Yay! After much fighting and wrestling with schedules and such I was finally able to finish. Hopefully Episode 2 will not take near as long. So, without further a-do,

Stupid Hobbitsess, Episode One: Going Postal

Youtube version:

Myspace Version
Stupid Hobbitsess Episode 1

Add to My Profile | More Videos

Quite the busy weekend! I am still exhausted from it all. The main that that we did was on Saturday, all day Saturday. My friend Shane Felux, director of Revelations and Pitching Lucas, contacted me (actually his wife and also my friend Dawn) to ask if I wanted to be an extra in a new film project. This one is a 45min long web series that will run as 14 separate 2-7min episodes. It is being backed by a subsidiary of Disney and if it gets a good following it may get picked up as a new Sci-Fi series. So Saturday morning, Andrew and I headed out to the Centerville rock quarry at 6am and stayed out there in the war zone till about 6pm. We were both dressed as war torn futuristic soldiers and were being evac’d from the planet surface. Andrew said he had a blast and he had a few good scenes so there is really good chance that he will be seen when the film gets done. He was excited.

So we got home at shortly after 6pm and took a little bit of a break. The plan was to go see a movie with TG at 10pm. (if you don’t know who TG is, just ask.) She got off work at 8 and came by to meet up at my place. After a few relaxing massages to ease the muscle strain, we left to go catch Hot Fuzz. The movie was great, very funny. The only problem I had was that I was exhausted. Thankfully I had a good comfy shoulder to nap on. I may need to go see it again to catch the scenes I missed. I feel so bad, I have never fallen asleep in a theater before! I guess that’s what I get for stretching myself a little thin. We came home and I crashed hard. I slept like a rock.

Sunday was as much like a typical Sunday as possible. We woke up, played some pool, cleaned the house, I got my comics (BTW, if you read comics you must must must read the Nightwing annual. One of the best reads in a long while). The only downside to the whole day was that I was still tired and sore. But, my house is clean as I am having company over this weekend. Last time I said who it was I got yelled at as I am not going to say. This next week is going to be taken nice and easy. I WILL finish editing episode 1 this week and have it ready shortly. No really!

Shhhhhhh
Originally uploaded by wizzer2801.

On the set

So as most of you know we have been in development of Episode 1 of Stupid Hobbitsess. Last night I was finally able to sit down and get most of the editing done for it. There are still a few holes and things that I may have to re-shoot, but for the most part it is all coming together. Since I know how I am with most of these things, I am not going to give a release date as of yet. What I have is starting to look good and there are a few things lined up to make it look better. The downside to all this is that I am spending so much time working on the film, I haven’t had much time to actually play the game! Everyone else is moving on in levels and I am getting left behind. Wasn’t I supposed to work on a device that would add more hours to the day? There is just not enough!

Or at least Ohio. So this last weekend saw a nice little trip to Cleveland Ohio. My friend Don is moving up there and needed some help from the guy with the truck. It was also a nice excuse to get away and road trip. It really has to say something about Don that would make me voluntarily venture into Ohio. Those of you who know me know my feelings about that state. Overall the trip was not bad, radioing back and forth between cars made for a fun drive. I know Don is looking forward to the house that they may be getting as it looked amazing. If they weren’t going to buy it I would be very tempted to. If only I could move the whole house.

While up down over where ever there we hit up the local Dave and Busters where Andrew was in video game heaven. I was a tad too tired to really enjoy it like I should. (The two Smirnoff’s didn’t help with that) so afterwards we headed back to Don’s temporary place and crashed out. You know, sometimes old duplexes can be drafty and scary! The next morning we drove back.

What is it about crappy redneck drivers in giant pickups that feel they need to screw up everyone else? On 66 we had an incident where this butt head in a full size Ford truck was pacing at 60mph with another truck so they were blocking both lanes. They wouldn’t let anyone pass and were sitting there laughing it up. I managed to work with Don and Position myself so that I could maneuver next to them and caught a break when a left hand merge brought in a car that forced the Ford to slow down. This gave me the chance to get in front and slow him down enough to allow the 12 cars he was harassing the chance to pass. Seeing what I did he thought he could get around me and then tried to run me off the road. Sadly he sucked at playing Chicken. Now there is a truck full of rednecks that are giving their driver a hard time because he let a Nissan Frontier get the better of him. (I know they were rednecks due to the Camo and Nascar caps they were all wearing, and I am not sure they had all their teeth, and trust me, I got close enough to see.)

Once I got home I had a billion things to do including laundry, putting away trip stuff, showering off all the Ohio, and grocery shopping. After all (most) of that was done, I had a visitor stop by to watch a movie and sit and talk for a while. (Temporary DVD player while the 360 is still out of commission). I won’t be going into any more details until much later, but suffice to say, things are looking up in the life and times of Steve.