The View From Drew

This being Veterans Day, the school is closed. The timing couldn't be better. Mikey's daycare was closed for the rest of the week because the owner has the H1N1 virus. Sue is off on Friday and will most likely take off tomorrow for Mikey.

Right now, the boys are playing the Wii, but a trip to a veterans memorial near home is in order today. Mikey may not understand, but Eddie will.

Posted via LiveJournal.app.

 You know, I really think the worst feeling in the world is when a hero, someone you looked up to, lets you down.  This hasn't been a good fall so far as I've been let down by not one, but two people I admired and thought highly of.  One is a friend, the other is a co-worker who was once my teacher.  Both appear to only care about themselves and both are willing to do anything to get what they want, even if it means hurting other people.  It's sad really and I thought better of both of them despite what others told me.

 So, we gathered online last night and not only was it the first time playing in some time, it was also the first time the whole gang played together in some time.  Skype was a little futzy, but I think that had to do with both myself and themadadmin  being on wireless connections.  There weren't that many encounters, one in fact, but it proved difficult as the party was already injured.  Five giant ants and four aspis drones from the Slave Lords series made them retreat back to a nearby town.  I'm moving the plot along by drugging them and having them wake up in the Slave Lords' dungeons where they'll have to fight their way out.

I hit highs and lows when it comes to my enthusiasm with the campaign.  Moving this along has got me motivated again. 

Thank goodness that is over. Do you know what's worse than an obnoxius New Yorker? An obnoxious New Yorker who is a Yankees fan. Honestly, I was rooting for the Yankees only after the Phillies failed to take command of this series in the hopes that they would end it sooner and we could get on with our lives. Of course, now there's the wearing of paraphenalia, the parades that will result in my students cutting school (why can't these be held on a weekend?), and then the general conversations in my company about how great the game was. You'd swear this was a religion. And they say I'm crazy for believing in God.

(posted in the middle of the night after helping tend to Mikey who threw up and has a 103 fever. I never should have taken a moment to check LJ or FB or Twitter which is littered like a ticker tape parade with celebratory notices of the Yankees win.)

Posted via LiveJournal.app.

 Just gave a rep from Cablevision Varsity channel a tour of the school.  They are donating a new camera, tripod, and mac computer to us in order to produce content for their website and channel.  They want short human interest pieces on primarily the sports teams we have, but also on the clubs and activities going on around the school.  It's a great opportunity for the kids as they will be trained by Cablevision producers on getting the best shot and editing their content for broadcast.  It will be great for the school as it will help to promote it.  It will also be great for me as I'm getting a stipend from Cablevision as the moderator of the video club.  Who knew, after all these years, I'd still be working in some sort of video production other than Eddie and Mikey making "poo poo" jokes for the camera.

Just recorded a Roundtable episode on Sherlock Holmes with Andrea as co-host that will premiere this Tuesday.  It features authors Laurie R. King and Kevin Lauderdale (now with the brand, spanking new LJ - kevinlauderdale  -  go check it out).  We had a great time talking about what makes the character what he is for so many people.  We rambled on about the various versions we've seen on screen (including a mention of the God-awful Tom Baker one).  We conjectured about what we can expect to see in the new version featuring Robert Downey Jr.  We even got a chance to work in some talk on the two musicals, much to Andrea's and Laurie's chagrin.

It's all new, all free, and all easy to access at the new home of The Chronic Rift podcast episodes - http://chronicrift.mevio.com.  Make sure you have your iTunes and Zune feeds updated by visiting the website.  And then when you're done, you can tell us how wonderful or how insane we were at http://www.chronicrift.com.

I'm posting this, the first in some time from my iPhone. I don't really access my LJ account anymore as use Facebook more often. But I found this free app so I thought I'd try it. I never thought I'd like my iPhone as much as I do and I've become very good at navigating the keyboard. I may start posting more often at this rate.

Posted via LiveJournal.app.

 Well, The Chronic Rift has.  The Chronic Rift is now part of the Mevio Network.  If you haven't subscribed to the showon iTunes yet, this is a perfect opportunity as we have moved over the entire collection of episodes to the network and will be shutting down the feed from Podomatic at the end of this month.  You can find the subscribe link by visiting our new home.  Here is the new podcast player for you to sample our podcast.

 We've produced an all-new review episode just for you.  (Really, just for you, don't worry about the others reading this, they can listen to the old ones.)  In this episode we're looking at the recent Rifftrax event, the Galileo and Star Trek exhibits at the Franklin Institute, the Galaxy Rangers DVD collections, and a bunch of baseball blogs.  Plus, in addition to the usual review segments, Orenthal referees a grudge match between the Transformers and G.I. Joe.  It's all here, just for you at - http://thechronicrift.podomatic.com/player/web/2009-08-23T18_23_54-07_00.  Enjoy!

 Here we go again, my anal list of programs I'm going to watch this fall in place of most of the drek that current television has to offer.

Sunday - The Prisoner, All in the Family (season 5), The Simpsons (season 7), The Six Million Dollar Man (season 3)

Monday - The Muppet Show (season 1), Little House (season 4), M*A*S*H (season 8), Angel (season 3)

Tuesday - Scrubs (season 1), Buffy (season 6)

Wednesday - Dinosaurs (season 2), Lost in Space (season 3), ST: Voyager (season 2)

Thursday - Black Adder (season 3), Spooks (season 4), Dark Season (one of RTD's first series)

Friday - Sliders (season 3), Millennium (season 1)

Saturday morning - Land of the Lost (season 3), Spider-Man (SONY), Thundarr the Barbarian (season 1), Dungeons & Dragons (season 3), Transformers (season 1)

Saturday - ST: Deep Space Nine (season 4), Jonathan Creek (season 3 - November), Doctor Who (season 11 - December)

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So, I make up for missing out on one interview by coming up with one as good if not better.  Bill Corbett, primarily known as the second voice of Crow T. Robot on Mystery Science Theater 3000, sits down with Andrea to discuss his latest endevour, Rifftrax.  The crew from Rifftrax are going to be doing a live performance to the movie Plan 9 from Outer Space.  He talks about the details of the event as well as his days on MST3K.  Plus, we actually got some voice mail (and by some, I mean one) which we listen and comment on.  You can listen with the player above, check us out on iTunes, or visit us on our homepage.  Enjoy. 

 
Marvel is producing an anime Iron Man anime series.  I hadn't heard anything about this, but it definitely looks cool.

 

Hi everyone, I posted a new episode to my podcast, The Chronic Rift. Please click the link below to view it. http://thechronicrift.podOmatic.com/entry/2009-07-26T18_35_14-07_00 See you there! - Chronic

 Many of you have probably seen this piece from The Daily Show, but I get a kick out it as it features my school and one of my co-workers.  I wonder if she knew this was a spoof.

Keith, Andrea, Orenthal, and Dan Persons are the stars. Julio Angel Ortiz and Ethan Parker are the contestants. I'm your host as we play Match Game.  Despite the early misgivings on the part of most involved, I think it turned out pretty good.  Take a listen and tell me what you think - http://thechronicrift.podomatic.com/.

 So, the past two nights have been fun with Skype.

Thursday night was spent with my D&D campaign, sending them off on a new adventure.  It's actually not a new adventure; in fact, it's quite old, but they don't realize it yet as they kind of stumbled into it.  It was fun though and I'm looking forward to playing in two weeks time.

Last night was another recording of The Chronic Rift.  We played Match Game with two of our listeners and I think we managed to live up to the old show and then some.  You can determine it for yourself by listening to the episode when we release it this Monday.

Sue will be glad to see me tonight as I've been hooked into a headset for the last two nights.  ;)

 kradical and I were at Shore Leave this past weekend and we recorded a panel discussion on the new Trek movie with author Greg Cox and fan Karen Mitchell Carothers.  It was a lot of fun and I learned a few things in doing remote recording that I hope to take with me to my next convention.  Here's the link to the episode, take a listen, and then stop by the Rift website and let us know what you thought of it.