Monthly Archives: November 2024

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What I’m Thankful For (2024)

I’ll be honest, I haven’t had the best year. It wasn’t a disastrous year, but it wasn’t great, either. I’m all for gratitude, but unfortunately, too many people in Christian circles seem to equate gratitude with complacency. Wanting more is seen as problematic. Or rather, improving one’s place is seen as unholy.

Regardless, I will do my best to list as many of the things I’m thankful for this year as I can. That is the point of Thanksgiving, isn’t it?

  1. God the Father.
  2. Jesus Christ.
  3. The Holy Spirit.
  4. The Bible.
  5. My church.
  6. My church’s pastors.
  7. My apartment.
  8. The Fort Wayne Ballroom Company.
  9. My substitute teaching job (as much as I hate it).
  10. My recent dental work.
  11. Dental insurance.
  12. My college friends circle.
  13. My fandom/podcast friends circle.
  14. My parents.
  15. My siblings.
  16. My laptop.
  17. My iPhone.
  18. The data the data recovery service was able to find (even though it wasn’t nearly as much as they said they could).
  19. The Monster Island Film Vault (my flagship podcast)
  20. Henshin Power V3 (my other podcast)
  21. My co-hosts and guest hosts on said podcasts.
  22. The Kaiju Lovers (MIFV fans)
  23. Henshin Power V3 listeners.
  24. My readers.
  25. The rest of my fans.
  26. G-Fest.
  27. Gen-Con.
  28. The other cons I attended.
  29. Kaiju United.
  30. TokUSA.
  31. My other publishers.
  32. My physical media collection.
  33. My book/comic library.
  34. My toy collection.
  35. That I live in America.
  36. That I live in Indiana.
  37. That I live in Fort Wayne.
  38. That I was able to produce my first full-length audiodrama episode, “Origins: Rito Bandora” for Scyther Inc.
  39. That I’m a member of Scyther’s actor stable.
  40. That I play Rito for Scyther.
  41. That I play Deadpool for Scyther.
  42. That I play Johnny Storm for Scyther.
  43. That I get asked to play those characters for other people.
  44. That I’m a published author.
  45. My author website.
  46. My MIFV website.
  47. My board games collection.
  48. My video game collection.
  49. My car.
  50. All the artists I know, especially if we’ve collaborated.
  51. The Constitution.
  52. The comic shops I frequent.
  53. My Patreon supporters.
  54. Electricity.
  55. Running water.
  56. Internet service.
  57. My bookshelves.
  58. The family pets.
  59. Tax refunds.
  60. Music.
  61. Dance.
  62. Bicycles.
  63. Roller rinks.
  64. Bookstores.
  65. Coffee shops.
  66. Laser tag.
  67. Arcades.
  68. The police.
  69. Military members.
  70. Veterans.
  71. The gym.
  72. My degrees.
  73. Indoor plumbing.
  74. That I can read.
  75. My past podcasts (Henshin Men and The Power Trip).
  76. Groceries.
  77. Pretzels.
  78. Pizza.
  79. Spaghetti.
  80. Protein shakes.
  81. Energy drinks (especially Ghost).
  82. My nephews and niece.
  83. Camping.
  84. C.S. Lewis.
  85. J.R.R. Tolkien.
  86. Stan Lee.
  87. My other favorite authors.
  88. Canva.
  89. Audacity.
  90. MS Word.
  91. Birthday gifts.
  92. Christmas.
  93. Hosting Scyther’s Power Rangers aftershows.
  94. Being part of Scyther’s Ranger Reviews.
  95. Podcasts.
  96. Audiobooks.
  97. My published books.
  98. Being part of Wild Hunt Press.
  99. Shameless self-promotion.
  100. GODZILLA MINUS ONE!

What are you thankful for this year? Comment below.

News, Announcements, Blog, Podcast

MY FIRST FULL-LENGTH AUDIODRAMA – “Origins: Rito Bandora”

Rito Revolto from Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers.

In case you didn’t know, I’ve been part of Scyther Podcasts’ stable of actors for a few years now. This is a group run by Karl Dutton that makes fan-produced audiodramas, most notably for X-Men and Power Rangers. While I’ve played (of all people) Deadpool on X-Men: The Audiodrama and as Johnny Storm (The Human Torch) on its spin-off Avengers: The Audiodrama (which is run by Mitch McFarland), my first claim to fame at Scyther was playing the darkly funny supervillain Rito Bandora (aka Rito Revolto in his original incranation) on Power Rangers: The Audiodrama (see image to the right). Unbeknownst to me, Scyther’s Rito became a fan-favorite.

Because of this and some…spoiler-ific events in PRAD, I pitched an idea to Karl to write and produce a bonus episode that expands on the background for Rito that’s briefly discussed in a few episodes of the main show. He approved the outline, and after a few months of drafting the script, I went into production for my first full-lnegth audiodrama. I say, “full-length,” because I’ve produced shorter drama segments on my flagship podcast, The Monster Island Film Vault, but the longest any of those got was about 20 minutes. This special clocks in at 55 minutes. I Mel Gibson’d the snot out of this; writing, directing, editing, producing, and starring in it. I even commissioned my friend Rebecca Hudgens to do the cover art and purchased the rights to a metal song to use as the episode’s theme song. I’ve joked that the episode should be retitled, “Nate’s Vanity Project.”

So, sit back and enjoy this dark science fantasy comedy!

You can also listen to it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you get your podcasts.

Be sure to watch me be interviewed about the background of this special on The Power Chamber Podcast.