November 2001 Archives

I finally got Norton Antivirus installed on my laptop. The latest worm that is going around has been sent to me about 20 times now from people who have been looking at my Charo page (most of the infected e-mails came to the charoinfo@clubjosh.com address). Thankfully, I removed my contacts from Outlook Express long ago (I know, I know, I only use it on my laptop for quick e-mail checks). I hope no one got the file from me. I guess it is a good thing I have been working at DL a lot this week. Not too much time to goof off on the computer and spread viruses.


Well I am now all nice and inoculated and the installation on the new computer is going ok. No major hiccups except for the SCSI card debacle. I still need to port over my old data and then wipe the old one and get it ready for some hard HP Core work. Speaking of which, I think I have found a good inventory software program with a barcode scanner for a project. I am just starting out, but thankfully I won't be needing to write any far-flung programs myself.

What a crazy week this has been! We have been running around looking at apartments and I have been fitting in errands and chores between monster DL shifts. This week is the private parties for Disney employees, and I have worked all three. They are lots of fun to work because the park is pretty quiet, and the Disney employees are nice and behave. As cast members, we get to ride rides on our breaks and get to eat Churros onstage - woo hoo! The only drawback is that the park stays open until 12:30am and I don't usually get home until almost 2am.


My new computer has arrived, and I finally feel like I am in the 21st Century. I know - you are all saying how can he get a new computer with Disney pay? Well lets just thank Jolly Ol' Dad..uh I mean St. Nick. Yeah, that's it. It is a 1.6Ghz P4 with 256 MB Ram and a 32MB graphics card and a 40GB HD. I have added some of my old PC parts (like the network card and the burner). Now all I need to do is copy over some of the old data and software. One major bummer is that the SCSI card is too old for the new machine, so I will need to get one so I can run the scanner. I might have to wait until after the New Year for that one. In the meantime, I installed Quake 3 which I haven't played since I left my last job. I am now recruiting old co-workers to see if we can get a nice frag session going.

Thanksgiving has come and gone and it has been a good one this year. Roger and I had our dinner on Friday instead of Thursday since I had to work a longer shift at Disney. Turkey, mashed potatoes, corn, and the best part of any dinner - rolls. My Friday shift at DL concluded with a bang. Right as we closed, I helped a special assistance guest onto Peter Pan. Unfortunately she took a wee bit too long and we went down. One thing that is really a pain is to have your ride go down right as you are closing. It all turned out well, and my leads even let us go and they finished closing the ride. I am not sure if they did it so we wouldn't mess up again or if they were being nice. Regardless, I was grateful (thanks guys!).


The great apartment hunt is on and through various online sources we have an early list of 12 places to visit tomorrow. We are hoping to have a place narrowed down by Dec. 1 so we can give our 30 day notice and be out by the end of the month. The rest of the weekend was pretty uneventful. Today is was off to the Father-Units for a good family dinner at Patrillo's on Alosta (well formerly Alosta, now called Route 66). Good Italian food at a decent price.

As I was surfing around the web, I came across Andy's site greyledge.net for the first time in awhile. Andy started a blog not too long ago and I am glad to see that he's still going strong. Of course, Andy's site is 1 billion times more dynamic than clubjosh, but then again he is 1 billion times the programmer that I am. He has pointed me in the right direction to learn PHP and between him and Dave I can always get my mondo-complicated programming questions answered.


My other friend Mandel has also started a blog recently on his newly revamped and relaunched mandelweb.com site. When he was relaunching his site he asked his friends opinions on several domain names. I was bummed when he didn't go for my favorite, "mandelicious.com". It is a groovy site so check it out.


Andy and Mandel are two people that I don't see nearly often enough and I am glad I at least get a peek into their lives now and then.

Sunday night, I sat down and watched the new director's edition of Star Trek: The Motion Picture. This movie has often been referred to as "Star Trek: The Motionless Picture" by many of my friends, and is not high up on my list of favorite movies. However, the new director's edition is fantastic. It is amazing what a few additional special effects and some tighter editing can do for a picture. I didn't realize how much better it was until I watched some of the deleted scenes. All in all, it is a good DVD to pick up and I can't wait and see what they do with Star Trek II next year.


This morning, I opened Peter Pan at Disneyland. Morning shifts are a mixed blessing. It is nice in the park (Only the magic morning people are there for the first two hours), but the commute is horrific from my house at that time. Coming back from work the I-5 was at a standstill so I decided to go the super-long way. At least there was no traffic.


Tonight is the second episode of the new series of Ab Fab. I love Ab Fab and I am thrilled that they decided to do some more episodes. It is funny how great British shows can be, and yet they often do not have that many episodes (i.e. Fawltey Towers).

Another busy couple of days. Working two jobs can get to you after awhile and completely drain you if you are not careful. That is why today is a relax day. Disneyland has been going well, though the crowds have started to pick up, and I can only imaging how bad it will be by the end of the holidays. I applied for some new jobs today on monster. I hope something comes up soon, as I need to get a new source of income soon. Money isn't that tight, but my comfort margin is shrinking a bit faster than I would like. With the holidays approaching I need to be extra careful of how I spend my money.


Friday night we went and saw the Harry Potter movie. Now, I have never read any of the books and I only had a faint idea of what the story was about. That said, I really enjoyed the movie. It was well acted and well balanced and as a newcomer I had no problems following the action.


Saturday was spent at the annual Disney Studios holiday faire. After two years of hearing about it after the fact, I was glad I caught wind of it. I wasn't really interested in the craft faire, but I always enjoy walking around the studios. I scored a new license plate frame, a sweater and a jacket with Disney Studios logos. Mice was happy to get some pins, and we all ended up getting out picture taken with Mickey and Minnie in Fall outfits.


I really need to start looking for a new apartment as well. I hope we can score a reasonable two bedroom. If not, looks like I'll be giving more stuff to Goodwill.

Nope I am not dead, just incredibly busy. I was out of town all last weekend at Wendy's wedding which was a grand, fabulous affair. I had the honor of doing some readings during the ceremony which were well received. Me and my friend Susie took mock wedding photos while we were there. We thought they would be perfect if we ever decided to run off and get married - we would save a fortune on a photographer.


So between the ceremony and reception on Saturday and now, I have been going non-stop. We visited my grandmother in the hospital in Sacramento on Sunday and then drove back to LA Sunday night. She's doing better every day, and hopefully she wont have to stay in the hospital much longer. We decided to drive straight to LA to save time rather than drop Susie off in Santa Barbara (thus having to make a B-Line to 101 and the coastal route). Instead, we chose the straight shot on I-5 and Monday morning I woke up early to drive Susie back to Santa Barbara and then turned around and came back. I had an hour layover at the house before it was off to Disneyland.


Tuesday I pulled double duty - first working at my dad's shop in the morning and then Disneyland in the afternoon. By the time I dragged myself in the door, I was dead tired. Today, I had off and some free tickets to California Adventure thanks to work. Roger and I took Tom and went with Wendy and Mice who were down for their honeymoon to DCA. We had a great time - though we were a bit miffed that our drawings did not make it into the Luminaria show at night (pics and comments will be posted on my DCA site when I get a chance).


So tomorrow, I do Tuesday all over again, and Friday I work in the morning at Disneyland - so I am thinking that Friday afternoon and night will be the first chance to rest since last week. At some point Friday night, I hope to get the wedding and DCA photos up. As I always like to say on this site, don't hold your breath!

I am so mad at Pacific Bell and Earthlink right now. For the second time in a year they have outright cancelled my DSL. So no more Earthlink. I've decided to go directly through Pac Bell. Hopefully, I won't have to deal with this anymore.


Right when I got all upset, I found out that my grandmother has to go in for emergency surgery to fix a tear in her Aorta. Since she had her replacement valve surgery three months ago, the difficulty of the surgery is magnified. She goes in tomorrow and we are all hoping for the best. It is a reminder though that in the grand scheme of things, internet access doesn't really matter.


Friday I am off to Northern California for Wendy and Mice's wedding. I also hope to get a chance to see the whole gang up there, and if possible visit grandmother in the hospital in Sacramento.

It's been a busy last few days. I saw Disney/Pixar's latest hit Monsters, Inc and enjoyed it. I was a bit surprised by the number of people in the theater who had an emotional reaction to the end of the pic. I admit to being a bit misty myself, but no sobbing. It is a different sort of movie than Bugs Life and Toy Story, but every bit as good.


I also came to an important decision. Ok, Ok, in the grand scheme of things it is not that important, but to me it was a big change. I have decided to give up trying to tape Star Trek. You see, I am a big geek and have all of the Star Trek TV shows on tape - including the short lived animated series. I just decided that enough is enough, and I really didn't want to be a slave for another seven years. Sure, I will watch them all religiously, but I won't get all hot and bothered if I miss taping one. I am now trying to figure out what to do with all the other tapes. I have a good mind just to dump them all. I will probably wait until I move - then I will just dump all the Trek-only tapes and keep the ones with movies I care about. Once I get those movies on DVD I'll toss the rest of the tapes. I will probably keep some of the newer Voyager tapes because they will be good for general purpose taping (gotta get all of the Amazing Race!).


So there you have it. The beginnings of the great purge. As I get closer to 30, I think more and more of the crapola I have been holding onto that sits in my closet will get the heave-ho. Of course making the commitment to do it and actually doing it are separate things. I just am gonna take it baby steps at a time.