January 2003 Archives

I hate hangovers. This morning I woke up with a real bangeroo after a night out with Tim, Daniel, and one of Tim's friends from Splash. We went to Dave and Busters, a place first introduced to me by Cooper up in the Bay Area, located at the Block at Orange. I think I have been to the Block more times in the last month than in the entire time since I moved back to SoCal in 1999. Part of the reason is lately, Daniel and I have been hanging out on Thursdays and invariably we end up shopping.

The mind has been working overtime again the last few days. Let's do some catch-up:

Spent way too many hours at the Matterhorn on Saturday. Arrived just before 5am and discovered that there were some problems with the wiring. As a result, it was well after 10am before we sent the first sled all the way through the mountain. After some more delays and discoveries, we were finally able to start cycling for the first time on the mountain since September. The cloud of dust sent up by the sleds was huge. All in all, a fun day learning some of the details about the actual workings of the ride. It is very similar to some of the stuff I am learning at Pooh during the ATP testing.

Sunday, we managed to make it to the movies after a nice drive up to the old familial stomping grounds of Zuma Beach. We decided to check out one of the larger theaters in Westwood near UCLA and caught Confessions of a Dangerous Mind. The movie is based on a book written by game show guru and former secret agent (well, maybe) Chuck Barris. Despite some unevenness here and there in the pacing, I enjoyed the movie and encourage you to check it out if you have not had the chance.

The last few days I have been working long hours at the Pooh ride. We have had a few VIP ride throughs, and thankfully, I haven't messed up the ride while they were there. The big test comes on Monday when Cynthia Harriss makes a cameo visit to the ride. Also next Tuesday, Daniel has his first day as a trainer on the ride, and it will be nice to have someone over there that I know. Today, Shannon was over there and she added a much needed morale boost after long tedious hours on Monday and Tuesday of testing each and every sub zone faults on the ride.

Yesterday, I found out that despite my new found status as a westsider at the Park, there was actually a chance for me to do some testing on the Matterhorn. The catch? Tomorrow, I have to be AT the park at 5am. Which means leaving the house sometime around 4 in the morning. My dad shrugs it off since he leaves around that time every morning to go to his work. I always counter with the "Yeah, you're used to it" line. In order for them not to pay me double-back, my schedule for today has been moved up 3 hours so that I can leave the park with more than eight hours before my next shift. I guess I can't complain since the shift will be 13 hours.

Testing at the Matterhorn is dangerous. No other time during the operation of the ride do you get to be near the track up in the mountain with sleds moving. I am excited and also wary. I know it is going to be a tough, long day, but I am hoping to learn a lot about Harold's house and in turn, when I get back to the Matterhorn later in the summer, be that much better of a cast member.

In going through the archives, I discovered that one year almost to the day was the last time I had an interview for a company that I was excited about. I hope this one turns out better. There is a part of me that wants to move to Orange County, new job or not. That way, I will be closer to the park if things don't work out, and if they do, then I can live in a place to save some money for a year to pay off debts and then buy something nicer in the future.

Has been a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants week. Out of the blue, I get a call from a company that wants to interview me. The phone interview was scheduled for 1pm today was called off at the last minute when the HR person called me and let me know that one of the interviewers was called out of town. Shades of another interview from last year. Thankfully, I actually got a rescheduled phone interview for next week and hopefully it turns out well.

In web news, I have made a few updates to the Charo site, mainly reporting all the latest news, including ticket prices for her new show Bravo 2003. Thanks to the registrar that Haim pointed me to, godaddy.com, I finally broke down and registered charo.info. You can now access my charo site from that simple URL.

Next week, I make the move over to Winne the Pooh fulltime. I think I will still have the occasional Matterhorn or Classics shift since I don't work on Friday mornings. Once the ride opens in April, I will be over at Pooh full time. So far, the crew looks like its going to be a good one and some of my friends will be there as well. Of course, how long I will be there will depend on what happens in the next few weeks.

Why does everything happen at the same time? Pace yourself life, pace yourself!

After much stress, Granny passed her written test at the DMV and was able to finally get her new-to-her 2002 Mazda Millenia. It's not a car that I would go out of my way to purchase, but it was very well priced and was in great condition. The final cincher was that the layout of the controls and the drive of the car was very similar to her now-dead 1991 Buick Rivera. I don't know if that's a good or bad thing, but Granny is pleased.

In other news, looks like this year's bitterness festival we like to call Anti-Valentine's Day is headed for CSI territory (and sadly we all can't afford Miami so it looks like Vegas-Baby). Just need some committals from some more people and we'll be off. I am not sure how well the hotel is going to like the dartboard, but we'll improvise with toothpaste or get a room with a balcony.

People snicker at me when I tell them I get to play with Pooh all day long. I have no idea why.

Roger informs me that the Tellme application has already busted. For some reason it is not reading the URL of the file output from Moveable Type. It is really weird since it worked just Saturday night. I wonder if there is something in the update parameters that is messing it up. I also noticed that the old version is not working either. I am hoping that this new update will fix it somehow. (Update: Yep, now it works - go figure I'll need to watch it.)

Today Granny, Jerri, and I headed over to Carmax to get Granny her new-to-her car. Carmax so far has had some decent prices on their car. Sadly, their service is just like any car dealership. Most of the sales force was nice, but there seems to be a special breed of person to be the "closer". Our whole car-buying process was derailed by the fact Granny needs to pass the written driving test tomorrow to complete the paperwork on the car. If we manage to get the car soon enough, then its off to spend a nice day in Palm Springs to celebrate. One humorous note from the Carfax report on the car: It used to be a rental in Honolulu.

I finally got the new Tellme site I mentioned in my last update. To access the new Club Josh Tellme Application just follow the following directions:

1. Call 1-800-555-Tell
2. When you get to the main menu, dial 1-JOSH-1 (1-56741)
3. Listen to the latest update
4. Hang up
5. Resume previous activity

So far, the only bug is that when I post a link in the update, the Tellme app errors out and skips over the contents of the < a > tag. I am going to try posting with XML-compliant tags and see if that helps. Otherwise I will have to see if I can modify Dave's old Perl program that strips out HTML and see if I can apply it to the update.vxml file.

Another minor issue (not really a bug) is that I can't get it to work on AT&T Wireless' #121 service. There has to be a way...

If I really feel like programming, I might figure out how to add a repeat function so listeners can just say repeat and listen again to the update (why anyone would want to, I'll never know but hey, I am all about options).

For the past week I have noticed that my left front tire has been losing air faster than a Winnie the Pooh ride vehicle trying to be pushed by a few Imagineers, some Attractions operators, and someone from custodial. I had suspected something was not quite right, but it wasn't until I was coming out of Daniel's house that I noticed the guilty nail. So off to Pep Boys to have it fixed. To amuse ourselves, Daniel and I headed over to the Big Lots! (nee Pic and Save) store and Baskin-Robbins for some sundae action.

Today, after working at HP Core, I headed over to Santa Monica to check the SeaGranite mail. It has been more than a few months since the last time I was over there (I think there was a flyer in the box for special hours for Labor Day), but I was glad I went in there when I did. Verisign has sent me some account information to help me manage my domain names that I needed to pick up soon since some of them are coming up for renewal. Also, I found out that my mailbox has a new owner and that I needed to sign some forms. Getting that out of the way, I think it might be time to relocate my box closer to home, especially if the ever-present, but never happened yet move to Orange County takes place.

It made me think of my old Edmunds days since Dave and I split the cost of the box and it made me think of my old Tellme site which I haven't been able to fix for a long time. I have always wanted to automate it, and thanks to an epiphany and no help from the net, I finally created a Movable Type template to publish the latest entry update (the one on the homepage and available on Cell Phones) . This means you can now get the latest update via the Tell Me network all without me worrying about updating. God, I love the 21st century. To access the site dial 1-800-555-T-E-L-L and then 1-12138. I am going to change the extension number to something like 1-JOSH1 or something like that.

Ahem and apparently the cat is out of the bag, but I can't tell specifics of it just yet. Let's just say I was right about my interview going well and that I will be spending a lot of time playing with Mr. Sanders and his friends. Full details when permitted next week.

It's been non-stop around here the last few days. the big story is the heat. It's January right? Last time I checked the thermometer it was 85 degrees and I was wearing shorts and rolling up my sleeves at the park. All of my fellow cast members have been lulled into a zombie like state. After the cold-for-LA past couple of weeks and the record crowds (one day over 110,000 resort-wide!), we were all a bit worn out. Now we are getting 18,000 on a good day in the park and the nice warm weather just adds to the feeling that we are all on a little vacation. Soon enough, the crowds will return, but I for one, am going to enjoy it.

I also had the chance to interview for a new position at the park on a new soon-to-be-premiering attraction based on a lovable bear with a honey fetish. If all goes well, I will have some good news to report soon and those of you wanting to see me in the park might have to veer left when entering the park instead of trudging straight ahead. **Fingers crossed**

The rest of my life has been a whirlwind these past few days, leaving little time for entry updates or other web design work. However, I finally registered my Dad's domain name for his work - hpcore.com (I just registered it today so give it some time). Hopefully, I will get a chance to build something nice there soon.

The annual New Year's festivities were almost derailed before they began. I had heard that on New Year's Eve if not enough people show up, that legally, according to our fine union contract, they can keep us up to two hours on overtime. I was worried since my shift was from 1p-9:30p that a two hour extension would keep me at Disneyland until 11:30, not nearly enough time to make it back to Hollywood for the evenings festivities. Thankfully, the gods were kind and I got out of there with minimal fuss. I picked up Daniel and we headed off to gather the posse of Brandon, Cory, and Roger and then headed over to Hollywood.

I picked out the club from an online ad for the party, and sadly I think I was the only one who saw the ad. The place was at Hollywood and Highland and there were not nearly enough people there. They also had watered down drinks, but thankfully, I brought enough money to still get a good buzz. Despite the lack of a crowd, I had a great time. When we got home, we tried out some of the new board games that Roger and I received for the holidays: Guesstures and Imaginiff. I like the Imaginiff game the best - Guesstures is cool, but needs more people to be really good. We didn't make it to the Survivor game, so we will have to get a game night organized soon.

The next day, we straggled out of bed and after some OK vittles, we played more games and even Cory's Atmosfear game which is fast paced and is always fun.

It was a great night and day that I got to spend with great people and I hope that it is a good omen for the coming year.