Happy Halloween

Today instead of going to parties Harry and I decided to stay home and pass out candy to the neighbor kids. We bought an assortment of candy and when I poured them into the bowl I thought to myself "Man we are going to run out".

I dressed up in my Harry Potter outfit which the kids loved and passed out candy..well the night started a little slow, we got a few kids but nothing like I expected. Then between 8 and 9 we got the bulk of the kids and then a few more after 9. Over all we had about 25 kids, which I thought was a little lite.. and I was totally wrong about the candy.. we have a huge bowl full left. All in all

Dead Friends Forever

Extreme Hauntings #1

Wanna be among the first to read it?

BUY HERE

Skater Kaylee Hensler might not be Miss Popular, but there are some friends a girl can do without. When the decaying ghost of a murdered girl decides they need to be total BFF’s, Kaylee will sacrifice the trust of her family, her swim coach’s respect, and any hope of a date for the Harvest Dance.

And oh yeah… discover that super-evil entities are nothing at all like they are on TV or in the movies Aside from seriously bad attitudes, they not only like to kill…but replay the killing again and again for all eternity. To avoid that fate, she’ll have to rely on her wheelchair-bound friend Davey, the mysterious Madame Maggie, and the surprising depth of her own power.

Will Kaylee survive, or will she become someone else's DFF: Dead Friend Forever?

Reviews:
"This book is exceptional! Turner takes a typical kid and ignites her courage to face unthinkable evil. Creepy, exciting, and totally cool, keep a light on when you read this one!" –M.K. Scott, author of Zamora's Ultimate Challenge (aka Michele Scott, The Wine Lovers Mysteries)

"Dead Friends Forever is a gripping tale of teenage turmoil taken to an extreme level. …it's more than a great story, it's a life, or shall I say, after-life event." –Matthew-Levi Kalik

"An incredible book…constantly changing and surprising me…sometimes leaving me breathless after an intense scene…one of the top books I've read…it has the power to leave anyone who reads it completely enthralled… A GREAT READ!!!!" –Skyler Byas

Bio:
During the long winters in central Wisconsin, J.R. Turner loves watching movies, doing arts and crafts and hanging out on MySpace. In the summer she can be found gardening, camping and enjoying the fresh water lakes and rivers. As a kid, her imagination got her in tons of trouble. At seven she dragged her five year old brother onto the roof of their two story home to practice for an imaginary flood, then later nearly drowned him when she imagined a five-foot tarantula in the shadows of the river bank. Many years later, she made her family proud when she won her first award for that very same talent. Today, she takes great pleasure in exploring exciting new story ideas and great characters, as well as chocolate of all kinds.

Quick Facts:
Release Date: March 2009
Title: DFF: Dead Friends Forever (Extreme Haunting #1)
Author: J.R. Turner
ISBN: 978-1-59080-625-8 (10-Digit 1-59080-625-5)
Genre: YA Horror
Pages: 272
Price: $13.99 US $16.99 CAN
Age Group: 12 +

Retail Distribution:
Echelon/Quake Direct (*45% - no minimum -returnable in sellable condition)
Ingram Book Co.
Partners Book Dist.
Follett Distribution
Brodart Co.
Amazon.com
Fictionwise (e-Formats)
*Paid pre-orders will receive a 48% discount.

Obama for President

sat down today and watched the Obama 30 minute video that was on last night at 8pm. First let me say I was a Hillary supporter but when she lost out to Obama I supported him. But after this video I am 100% behind this man. There is a charisma about him. When he speaks my heart swells. I teared up listening to his speeches and listening to what he has planned for our country. People compare him to JFK and I agree with them. He is going to make a FANTASTIC President.

Digiziting The Guild

I finally was able to sit down and hook up my camera to my computer and start to digitize The Guild BTS footage. I have 27 hours shoot so far.. it's going to take me a few days to get it all in. Once it's all in I can start to cut. I have a deadline for one piece by December 1st.. so the pressure is on.

New Website

Now that I have my own Domain (Geekyfanboy.com) I am revamping my entire website. The only problem is I don't know about web building. I used yahoo pagebuilder which is a very simple click and move type thing. My new website I am trying to build with Dreamweaver and HTML and it's proving a lot harder then I expected. I did manage to build my front page but when you expand or reduce the window every shifts around.. I'm sure I'll figure it out sooner or later but I don't expect to get my new site done any time soon. I'll keep you posted.

Harry Potter Trailer

Today they released the new International Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince teaser trailer.... all I have to say is OMG. So many cool scenes that we didn't see in the US teaser trailer. I'm a huge Harry Potter fan but I can say this movie is going to ROCK!!!!!!!!

Visiting Dad

Today Harry and I went and visited my Dad. We haven't seen him since my birthday at the end of September. We normally go every other week but with The Guild shoots every weekend the past few weeks we haven't been able to met up. Today we took him out for Chinese food. It was alot of fun.

Happy Birthday Rick

Today is one of my good friends Birthday.. Rick Moyer from Aberdeen Washington. Rick and I have never met in person but met through a sci fi and fantasy forum called Treks in Sci Fi. He is one of the nicest and sweetest guys I know. I wish him all the best on his special day.

Jemma in Watercolour - Sold

I'm really getting into my watercolours now. I painted this one last Monday. It's of Jemma, the dog I doggy-sat in Greyton. She has such lovely expressions, but I guess that comes with age - much like wrinkles! For this pose she was sitting in her favourite chair on the stoep, wondering what I was doing - a "now what" look!

The Guild Shoot

Today was another Guild shoot.. got more interviews. This was an unusual shoot because we had to do pick ups in Hollywood area then drive to the Valley for the second half of the shoot day. We actually got out pretty early.. well not real early but it was still light outside when I headed home and that's always a good thing. It's sad but the shoots are starting to wind down.. only have a few more to go. I have to start cutting together my special BTS pieces.

Loving Clone Wars

Another fantastic episode of The Clone Wars.. if you're not watching this series you are really missing out on something special. It' s airs Fridays at 9pm on The Cartoon Network.

Doctors Visit

Today I got a response from my Doctor asking me to come in so they could check out this lump.. just to be safe. He was booked but his colleague was available so I went to see him. Of course as I'm driving up they call me and ask if I can come in later as they double booked for my time.. I told them I was parking the car and they said they would figure something out. I waited about 45 minutes in the exam room for Dr. Peters. Luckily I had my ipod and was listening to Harry Potter books so I was a happy camper. Dr. Peters did the exam and of course the bump was gone by then. He checked me out and couldn't find anything wrong. He said it couldn't be a spider bites as those last longer then two days, he said it could be result of an swollen lymph node.. but he said they are not normally up that high.. so we really don't know why I had that lump.. could have been a quick 24 hour infection or some sort. He said I looked fine and since I was feeling better all seemed good.

Voted

Today I voted via mail.. this is the first time I have done it this way and I don't understand why everyone doesn't do it this way. It's super easy and very fast. So I knew who I wanted to vote for and knew another few days were not going to change my mind.. so I sent out my vote today... GO OBAMA!!!!

BTW.. still feeling a bit under the weather and still have the lump on the back of my head.. I emailed my doctor to see if I should come in.. I'll keep you posted.

Cleaning/Website/Feeling Sick

Today I managed to clean up around the house.. the big thing was cleaning up the garage. It's been a mess ever since the wedding and I really wanted to clean it up so I can start working out again.. our equipment is in there. So after Harry took Daisy to the park I jumped on in and cleaned it up fairly quickly.

I also started working on my new website.. it's tough since I really don't know how to use HTML, Dreamweaver and Joomla but I'm learning. I don't think I'll get the new site up and running for a few months.. but how knows...

Towards the evening I wasn't feeling so hot.. had an earache and sore throat and this massive headache. It was coming from the back of my head and when I went to feel back there I had a huge lump. Not sure where that came from, could have been a spider bite, there were lots of webs and I destroying in the garage. Could have something to do with my ear and throat hurting.. not sure.. I'll see if it's better tomorrow as of now it hurts and it's tough to lay down on that side... I'll keep you posted.

1st day off

Today is my first day of my in between job vacation. Not sure if it's going to be one, two, or three weeks.. so I'm enjoying everyday I can. Today I did nothing but sit on the computer and watching TV.. it was a nice way to spend my first day off.

Another Guild Weekend

This weekend was another Guild weekend.. Saturday we were at Felicia house shooting Vork and Zaboo scenes. We ran a bit long and couldn't get everything that was needed. I continued to get great BTS footage. For Sunday we were shooting in Pasadena with several new cast members and Felicia. We also had a SFX make up artist who did some work (I can't say any more :) ). He has worked in the biz for over thirty years and it was very interesting and cool chatting with him. He worked on Voyager seasons 1 - 3 and several of the Star Trek movies , #4, 5, and 6 as well as some of episodes from Enterprise. On Voyager the main person he worked on was Roxanne Dawson who played Bellana Torres. Being a Trekkie geek it was fun listening to all his interesting stories. I could have spent hours talking to him. Anyways Sunday's shoot went really well and we seemed to be ahead of schedule.. so all in all another fun weekend working on The Guild season two. I also started crew and cast interviews..

New Gig

Today on my last day on my current job I got a call my boss on my current job and she offered me the Post Super job on the upcoming sixth season of Deadliest Catch for Discovery. Of course I said yes and the really cool part is that the job doesn't start for two to three weeks.. so I'll get some much needed time off between gigs.

Last Day on America's Toughest Jobs

Today is my last day on America's Toughest Jobs. It's been a good six months worth of work.. I've had good and bad days but for the most part it was a good experience. As for the show it didn't do as well as NBC was hoping and it doesn't look like it will get a second season.

En

I'm blogging from the Renaissance hotel in Orlando where I'm a guest author at the Florida Council For Teacher's of English.

I want to give a shout out to Megan P. for organizing a bang up event and for being an EXCELLENT host. You rock, Megan!

New Trek Pixs

Today Paramount released five new Star Trek pictures from the up coming re-imagined Star Trek franchise.. all I have to say is OMG... I love them. I like the look of the ship, the look of the uniforms and the look of the much younger crew. I was never a huge fan of the original series so the changes made don't really bother me. I am so pumped for this new movie.. I miss having new Trek in my life.

Final Week

This is my final week working on America's Toughest Jobs.. it's been a long seven months on this gig. I've had some good times and not so good times.. but in the end we made a really good 10 episode series. I don't have anything lined up just yet. I hope to take a few weeks off before starting a new gig.. but will see what happens.

Joan's Watercolour

No, this isn't mine, but was given to me by a friend and watercolourist, Joan East. She doesn't think she's very good, but I think totally differently. I just had to let everyone who is interested, see this piece.She inspired me to retry my hand at watercolour, and I have rejoined the "Monday Group" at Frank Joubert in Newlands. This was done quite quickly, and although the guinea fowl are not all that recognisable, that's what they're meant to be!

Day Off

Today was my first day off in 21 days.. between my regular job and doing volunteer 15-hour days with The Guild I haven't had a day off in a long time. I had planned so many things to get done on this day. I wanted to visit my Dad, do laundry and various other things that I have put off because my weekends have been full. I got up today and felt really good.. did a few things around the house, cleaned up the kitchen and fixed the back door. Then I jumped online and spent a few hours online. Once Harry got up I made us breakfast and then we planned to go visit day. Well about the time we were actually suppose to be at Dad's both Harry and I were sitting on the couch watching TV. So I called Dad and told him that we weren't going to make it down and will try for next weekend.

This opened up our schedule a bit and now we had time to do laundry. Well lunchtime came and we ate and again sat on the couch and watched TV. Yeah we did that the rest of the day. Neither of us really moved and to be honest after 21 days of work it was nice to just hang out with Harry on the couch and watch some TV.

Blizzcon and The Guild

Today I got to go to Blizzcon, if you don't know what that is it's a huge convention for video game fanatics, this year being held at the Anehiem Convetion Center. I had never gone before not being a gamer myself but The Guild were the guest of houner and they were doing a panel and autograph signing and I thought it would be cool to video tape this for their BTS DVD extra stuff. So the wonderful Kim (Producer of The Guild) got me a "All Access" pass for the day.

I got there about 10am and there were geeks and nerds everyone. It reminded me alot of Comic Con. But it's very different once you are inside. There are a few booths and table but the majority of the area is made of to a few hundred computers. There were three main game areas, Diablo III, StarcraftII and World of Warcraft.

As soon as I got there Kim took me to Feleica who was playing Diablo III. I said a quick hello.. didn't want to bother her and then headed to The Guild table where they were selling cast photos, an exclusive drawing of the cast as their characters (which is beatiftul) and season one DVD. I hung out there and took some video, Guild stars would come and go, they would sign a few autographs and then head out to play a game. We all did lunch and headed up to the panel room. The room was packed, holding about 500 people and tons had to be turned away. (when will these people ever learn. Some this popular needs the largest room.) Anyways the panel went great.. the crowd loved them and I had a front middle seat and got some great video. They also showed a rough cut of episode one of season two and the crowd went crazy.. as did I. It was sooooo good and I can't wait to see the final product.

After the panel everyone headed down the the table to sign autographs. They were scheduled to sign from 3pm to 5pm. When we got down there, there was already a long line of people waiting. We got set up and started to sign. I videoed taked the autograph session as well as the super long line. I was going to videotape fans but it was so loud in that place. They had at one point at least 400+ people waiting. The autograph session went to about 5:30pm before the line finally died down. At this point I jumped in line because I'm a huge fan and I got the entire cast to sign a group cast photo as well as one of those beautiful drawing of the cast.

After the signing a few of them left for the day (the non gamers) while other went back to the floor to play some more games and Felicia and Jeff (Vork) stayed around and signed autographs for the late comers and did a few international interviews. I walked around to take some footage of the con it's self.

We finally closed the table down around 6:30pm and it was time for me to head home. With my Blizzcon goody bag in hand and some great footage for the BTS it was a wonderful day.

One more to go

Yay.. it's Friday and we finally finished episode nine of America's Toughest Jobs. I have one more week on this job and one more episode to finish. I can't wait for this job to be over.. it's been a long seven months. So are I have nothing lined up. I have a few leads but nothing solid yet. I would love to take off a few weeks before starting a new job. But if something comes up sooner I can say no... wish me luck this last week.

Doctor's Appointment

Today I had a doctor’s appointment.. it was a follow-up to do some blood work to make sure the new cholesterol and testosterone medicine weren't effecting my in a negative way. Of course I have gained even more weight.. surpassing the horrible number of 200. I now weigh 205.. that was a wake up call.. time to start working out again and trying to eat better :)

I did find out why I am hungry all the time 24/7. The testosterone that I am taking increased my appetite 10 fold. He said it's like being a 12 old kid again. Now if only my voice would deepen.. that's a side effect I could live with.

I find out next week if the cholesterol medicine is effecting my liver.. so far so good.

Lion's Head from Table Mountain

Oh I have been very lazy these past few weeks. I seem to have started three or four paintings and then stopped. Maybe it's that time of the year, what with the weather finally warming up and the promise of summer on the way. The exhibition also seemed to take up so much time even though I only had one painting selected. I volunteered to help out at the show and that gave me a lot more time to actually look at the artwork on show - and what an amazing amount of talent we have in this little corner of Africa. I feel quite honoured that I was included!

With the advent of summer, I have also decided that this winter weight must go, so it's off the gym for me. I am going to try and do at least three mornings a week at 30 minutes a stretch so I don't have to buy a new summer wardrobe! Also teaching Tai Chi once a week will get those under-used muscles a bit of a workout. One thing I won't be doing, is climbing Table Mountain. This is from a picture taken by my cousin from Kwa-Zulu Natal whilst on holiday in the Cape. I have loosened up my technique quite a bit - I was trying to get too picture perfect. Comments would be most appreciated.

Online Purchases

Today I got a 1 terabyte hard drive. I currently own a 500-gigabyte hard drive but it can no longer back up my computer as it is out of space.. so I have two choices.. get rid of stuff off my computer or buy a larger storage drive.. well the choice was easy. :) So I shopped around and found a pretty good deal on ebay. Maxtor 1 TB External USB/Firewire 400 Hard Drive and total with shipping was only $190.00. As soon as I get this I can back up my computer and start digitizing all this BTS Guild footage so I can start creating magic.

Also today I purchased from Amazon.com Pushing Daisies Season One boxset. I love this series and some friends of mine from down in Texas sent me a gift card. Once I had the gift card I knew exactly what I wanted to buy.. so thank you Jen and Dave for buying me Pushing Daisies Season One boxset for my Birthday.

Logging Footage

Today was really slow at work so I decided that I would start logging the seventeen tapes I have shot so far for The Guild BTS DVD extra stuff. I labeled all the tapes and began to watch. I managed to get through four and a half hours of footage so far. So much cool stuff.. I just have to come up with a way to cut it all together and have it make sense. At least I was able to get started on the logging.. I hope to get more done this week.

Clone Wars TV Series

Well I was finally about to sit down before work today and watch the first two episodes on this series... I LOVED THEM...

What a great way to start the series with a Yoda episode. And as many have said this was the ESB Yoda.. when he gave his speech to the clones about how special each one was and with the music, not even realizing it I had tears in my eyes.. it amazes me that a cartoon can move me so much but then again it's Star Wars and Star Wars has always been very special to me.

Episode two was fun.. gotta to see more of the Anakin and Ahsoka's relationship which I really enjoyed from the movie.

I can't wait for more of this series.. I'm so excited that I'll get 30 minutes (well 22 minutes) of Star Wars goodness each week.

Amelia Island Book Festival

I spent a lovely weekend in Fernandina Beach at the Amelia Island Book Festival. I want to give a shout out to Ms. Brussel's Journalism class at Yulee Middle School for being such awesome kids. And I want to give a double shout out to all the festival coordinators for doing such a bang up job.

More of The Guild Goodness

Today was another Guild shoot day.. my fifth so far. Though they are alot of fun they are starting to take their toll on me. Working long hours Monday through Friday at America's Toughest Jobs then working 12 to 15 hours doing stuff for The Guild is not only hard of my "old" body but I miss Harry. I see him when I get home but lately it's only been a few hours before I go to bed to get up and do it all again the next day. I haven't had a day off in the past 20 days. Not that I'm complaining and I know it's only for a short time. And in the end it will all be worth it with all the cool DVD BTS stuff I get to create from all this footage.

So today was another long 15 hour day. All cast members were shooting today which was kind of fun. Since this is my fifth shoot I'm being more selective on what I shoot and I'm taking more photos with flash for better results. I'll be starting interviews soon and I really do need to start logging all these footage.

Next weekend I'm going to Blizzcon (gaming convention) to film their panel.. It’s only one day so I'll be off Sunday.. yay!!!

Guild Shoot.. starring the Homeless Guy #1

Today was another Guild shoot. Today shoot was in the Hollywood area (can't tell you were) and was extra special because I was going to be on camera as a homeless guy. All shoots are always fun, very busy and long. Today was no exception. One cool thing that happened today was the house we were shooting at had a chessboard and Sandeep (Zaboo) asked if I wanted to play.. so for the next eight hours we played a game of chess.. between takes we would keep coming back to the board and making moves. I hadn't played in years and with the help of our audio guy Sean I held my own for a while.. in the end Sandeep won but it was a lot of fun.

The other cool thing about today’s shoot was I was an actor as well. About mid-day it was time to shoot my scene. I had given some ragged clothes to Leah (art director) so she could dirty them up. Next I went to the make up artist and she made me look dirty and sun worn. I put on my rags and was ready for action. We were shooting out on a Hollywood street. My job was to sit against a wall with several trash bag around me and leery at Codex (Felicia Day) and Zaboo (Sandeep) when they walked by. It actually started to lightly rain while I sat there. I pretended to drink from a bag-covered bottle and we did the take over and over and over again. Between scenes I would continue to sit there as 'regular' folks would walk by and stare at me or skit by me hold their purse close to them. It was alot of fun.. will see if I make it to the final cut but nonetheless it was great that they asked me to participate in one of my favorite web series.

Today's shoot lasted 12 hours and by the end I was exhausted and ready for home as we had another shoot day tomorrow.

Pretty Cool Offer

Today I got an email from the Producers of The Guild; it's the web series I have been volunteering on the past few weekends. They asked if I would play the part of a homeless man during there up coming shoot... how cool is that?? At least I think it's cool, they said when the thought of a homeless guy they thought of me... LOL.. of course they were joking and I immediately replied with a YES. Not sure what I'll be doing but it should be fun.. I'll keep you posted.

Pushing Daisies is Back

Wooo Hooo.. Pushing Daisies is back on TV with all new episodes.. this was one of my favorite new TV series from last year. But with the writers strike we only go nine of the 22 planned episodes last year.. so it's been a long nine months waiting for new episodes and it came back in all it's Daisies goodness. Still quirky, beautifully shot and super funny the first episode of season two brought back all the magic from the first season. I can't wait for me... if you don't know what Pushing Daisies is.. check out the LINK

One Year in House

Today officially marks one year living in our house in Reseda. Can't believe a year has gone by. Luckily the owner of the house we are renting gave us the option of renewing the lease for another year without a rent increase... of course we took him up on his offer and signed another year lease. Here's to another great year in that house.