November 2003 Archives

There is a reason I don't usually go out on the day after Thanksgiving to go shopping. Today, Mom and I ventured out to the stores at 7am to get in on some of the early bird deals. I cruised through the ads last night to see if there was anything that really caught my eye. Comp USA had a 512MB Compact Flash Card for $79 (regular $149) that I couldn't pass up. I also noticed Best Buy had their usual DVD blowout. Mom had penciled in Tuesday Morning, Sears, and Target as her places to hit.

First stop: Target. Not really crowded and not very many deals - felt like we wasted some precious time there. We then cruised by Tuesday Morning and discovered they didn't open until 10. Then it was off to Best Buy and man was it packed. The estimates from the clerk were that it would take over 2 hours to get through the line to the registers. The line snaked back and forth around the store and began near the entrance. Mom and I decided it didn't matter what we were looking for, it wasn't worth waiting in line. Amazingly enough, there was even a line at the furniture store next door to see a salesman.

When then managed to catch up with Cathy and Cherish at the Waffle House to refuel and get organized. We then headed to Comp USA where I got the CF card as well as a new wireless router and USB network adapter for $20 each. I know both are the old 802.11b instead of the g, but it was worth it for the price. I will now be able to wire my TiVo into the network so I can schedule my recordings online. The TiVo website mentioned I might have some problems since it is a newer adapter, but I can always take it back or use it on my desktop (though USB connection is way slower than my PC Card so I'll probably take it back if it doesn't work).

After a horrific wait in line (including one line that didn't move for 40 minutes) we headed off to the Mall. We visited the new Chandler Mall and I agree with Mom that it is nice on the inside, but laid out a bit weird. I was tempted by some luggage, but decided to forgo any other purchases. We then headed to Home Depot to try and get a 9' pre-lighted Christmas Tree, but they were sold out at all the Home Depots in the Valley area as well as either 0 or 1 in all the other stores in AZ.

Now it is relax time. We had a nice relaxing dinner last night. Mom and Gary out did themselves with a massive feast. It is nice to pop on over for a quick trip to relax and we managed to get more info on our trip next week to New York. Tonight it is back to LA and then tomorrow it is back to work for a few days.

Oh, and yes I did get the job I applied for so my responsibilities have been notched up a bit. Now I just need to shadow people in the role and then get trained on the computer system used to manage the cast. It's a nice feeling to know that people were pulling for me to get the position at work. I also know some people are not sure of what to expect from me, and to them I will say that I will do my best to work with them and help out as much as I can.

I've picked up a wee bit of a cold from somewhere. Suspects abound and many fingers are being pointed. After a good NyQuil sleep last night, I feel a bit better, but still a bit raspy in the voice. I wonder why it seems that my voice always goes out when I get sick lately. I think it is because of all the talking I do to guests at work.

Speaking of work, my interview went well (well as good as one can tell from the other chair) and they will be notifying the people who get the position at some point on Wednesday. I am excited and scared as I always get when these things happen. I am not expecting anything and will not be disappointed if I don't get it (ok, maybe a wee bit). It is interesting timing, though. I have mentioned several times that when I go on vacation life seems to change course. With the wee bit trip to Phoenix on Thursday and New York next week, I am ripe for change - no telling what will happen or when but stay tuned!

Somehow it missed the daily update last week, but Pamela Anderson was spotted in the staging area of the Pooh ride on Wednesday. I tried to convice her with my wit and charm to go on the ride, but she opted to stay there and wait for her party and make a phone call.

Despite my amazement at its speed, November keeps rolling along. It is getting near to Turkey Day, and this year I am off to Phoenix for a quick overnight to visit Mom. Kevin's birthday is also next week, so I will be able to give him his present in person for once. It has been awhile since I've spent Thanksgiving in Arizona - my schedule at Disneyland rarely permits me to make family functions. This year, I planned ahead and made sure I had my shift requests in. I was a bit hesitant to fly over there for just a quick overnight stay - especially since we are all going to New York the following week, but it actually works out since we will be able to plan our trip a bit better.

I can't believe the New York trip is almost here. Heck, I booked it way back in August and it seems like so long ago. Some of the details are already leaking out as to what we are going to do. The day after we arrive, we are going to a taping of "The View" so set your TiVos and VCRs for Thursday December 4 and you might see me on TV! Other trip highlights planned are a visit to Radio City Music Hall to see the Rockettes, a trip to the Statue of Liberty (gotta get those Gorn shots), the WTC site, The Empire State Building, and hopefully a brief trip across the river to New Jersey so I can add another state to my list.

Behind the scenes here at Club Josh, I have been working on a new version of the site called 'Club Josh Lite Edition'. It is essentially the PDA site, but with more content from the Gorn Page and Charo.info. I am not sure if it will become a new PDA site or if it will live on its own. The Mobile site is pretty much dead since it was built in HDML. I still support it when it needs some work, but most phones don't support it. As I have mentioned before, I'd like to convert Mobile to a WML site, but my brain is having problems decoding it. Meanwhile, my phone (and I suspect a whole heckuva lot of others) read simple HTML, and it would be nice to have one Lite version accessible for both Wireless PDA and Web-enabled phones. The biggest issue is of course screen size and trying to add some graphics to the site (and links to pics). If I stick to separate sites, I can optimize one for PDA screens and the other for Mobile screens. Right now, I am testing it all in a separate directory. Do you have a web-enabled phone? Let me know and you can test the site for me.

One last holiday note: Rumblings are loud and positive from all around, but there are some negatives floating out there. If I can make a good impression tomorrow, then I might get an extra special gift this Holiday season. Full details when available (hopefully before Turkey Day!)

Yesterday, I was rummaging through the web stats on the site and discovered a huge boost in traffic to the Gorn Page as of October 15. I was really baffled as to the cause. I know that Google has posted The Gorn Page as the No. 2 site when you do a web search for 'gorn'. Every now and then I see a spike due to Google placement, but this one was way off of the charts. It reminded me of the spike in the Charo traffic in August of 2001, so I decided to look around in my directories. I stumbled on an old log file program that I thought I had deleted from all of my pages, but I inadvertently left it on of all pages - The Gorn Page!

Turns out, the Gorn Page was posted to a couple of high-profile link sites namely Presurfer, Milk and Cookies, and Web Junkie (for the links to the posts about the Gorn Page visit here. All three sites are cool sites that I have added to my daily surfing around the web. It is amazing that the Gorn Page has been around since 1995 (one of the original sections of Club Josh) and 8 years later it has returned to the top of the traffic heap. Originally, the Gorn Page was the top, then Disneyland Paris, then Charo, and now back to The Gorn Page - tho Charo and DLP (thanks to updates and expansion) are still up there.

While surfing on Web Junkie, I found a like to a site where you can make your own personalized action figure. It looks expensive, but wouldn't it be neat to see the Gorn AND Josh travel the world?

I guess my web site has reached a certain level of popularity. I have started to get spammed in the comments of my Daily Update entries. I have been able to keep on top of them thanks to the IP banning feature in Movable Type, but it is still a pain. There has to be a batch comment editor feature of MT, I just haven't found it yet.

The past week has been a busy one. Last weekend was my first new hire training at the Pooh ride. Turns out we had 5 total trainees and three trainers. It was a madhouse trying to get things taught. In the end with all the ride breakdowns and mass chaos, I had to bring in three of the trainees on Monday to finish up. I think it helped them build their self confidence on the ride and in the long run will make them better cast members.

Next week, I start update training for three days at the Pooh ride for some new procedures that are being rolled out at both the Disneyland Resort and Walt Disney World. Should be a fun three days. Next weekend it is more update training. I love training - I wish I did more of it. In other work news, there are rumblings again about an opportunity for me to do something I have wanted to do for sometime. No details yet, I'm just keeping my fingers crossed.

The other night I couldn't sleep and discovered that my PDA site works on my Motorola T720 phone. I'm thinking that the simple HTML is the way to go. I guess I'll add that to the list of things to do for the web site. Man it is getting long. The other day I tried to sit down and hammer out more of the new Trip Diaries site with no luck. I just don't have the motivation. I work better on the site at night - and the way things are going, I might just have more night time to myself so we will see. Back to the new Mobile site: I can easily produce simpler versions of my entire site using SSIs and converting select graphics to GIF format. My phone doesn't like JPG at all. In the meantime, I have added this pic to my background of my cell phone.

Major bad TiVo experience last night. Daniel came over to watch Survivor only to discover that the cable had gone out or got messed up changing the channels. The result? An hour of a blank screen instead of the latest episode. Dang it! And then, the discovery that the episode of 24 I TiVo'ed for him on Tuesday was actually an encore of the first episode and not the new second episode. Man, it made me feel like a dork. Just goes to show you that nothing is certain -- no matter how hard you try. The evening was salvaged by an episode of CSI. (Which helped me discover the Cable was goofy - I turned it on and nothing was on the TV. By changing a few channels, the cable finally came to its senses.)

I must reiterate the fact that I hate cable boxes. It seems to me that in this day and age we should be able to do without them and plug the cable directly into the TV - which should have a built in multiple cable box so that it can be compatible with all the cable systems in the US (oh yeah why aren't they standard either? No wonder Europe is so far ahead on these things.)

So Daniel if you are reading this I'm sorry for having TV night messed up.

In work news, I am excited to finally be training new hires at the park tomorrow. So far every time I had been scheduled for new hires, the training got canceled. I haven't received a call from scheduling yet **fingers crossed**.

P.S. Be sure to catch my reviews of Brother Bear and Matrix Revolutions.

Chapter Three of the Matrix series finds Neo in a coma and those creepy sentinels digging ever so closer to the last human settlement of Zion (no word on if it is near the National Park of the same name). Turns out, our hero is caught between two worlds (not for long thanks to the work of Trinity, Morpheus, and Seraph - who I think needs his own movie) and has to figure out what to do to stick it to the machines. In the meantime, the machines are a drillin' down to Zion, and our favorite nemesis Agent Smith is quickly replicating.

Not quite as heavy handed as Reloaded, Revolutions manages to tie everything up in a spectacular entertaining way, but in the end, I felt short changed. The other two movies spent time building up Neo as the one, and when we get the big ending what happens? They spend way toooo much time on the machines attacking Zion angle. Don't get me wrong, I liked the scene and thought it was a tremendous piece of film making, but I wanted more Neo, less machine attacks. I did get a cool Neo v. Smith showdown, but as the big battle scene was raging, I kept looking at my watch thinking "when are they gonna get back to Neo". Maybe they just didn't have that much material for him. Maybe they realize Keanu Reeves is better with less dialogue. Who knows? I think the best scenes of the movie all involved him and his quest, and the relative dearth of them in this flick hurt it. And maybe it is because I like Star Trek, but Councilor Hamann (Anthony Zerbe) looked suspiciously like Admiral Dougherty (Anthony Zerbe) in Star Trek Insurrection - so while I watched both Reloaded and Revolutions, I kept waiting for him to betray the humans.

The first Matrix movie was cool in that it had a bit of everything and was an innovative piece of film making with a solid story and some hints to a cool philosophical musings. I think the second and third one only suffer by comparison because the first was so unique. Taken together, they still are great films, but will never recapture the magic of the first one -- when it was all 'new'. Sequel making is difficult at best -- especially when the first film builds up a rabid fan base (just ask George Lucas how unforgiving fans are). Like Star Wars, all things Matrix will have to live up to that first time -- and inevitably all will fail because the magic is gone.

If you have invested the time in the either of the first two Matrix film, you have to see the third -- if for nothing than to get some resolution. Though, come to think of it, the ending was a bit open ended, so who knows we might be seeing more Animatrix movies or perhaps a series on Cartoon Network. Only the Oracle knows.

Disney's latest feature is a perfect example of what is wrong with their animation department. They do not know what to make. Should they make serious epics, Broadway musicals, or over the top comedies? I think the Disney folks need to sit back and watch Pixar's Finding Nemo (they should have, but maybe it is too much to bare). Pixar is making the films Disney should be making, and Disney is like a car sputtering. Some times it gets the fuel it needs and fires all the pistons just right (Lilo and Stitch) and sometimes there is no gas at all (Treasure Planet). Brother Bear falls right in the smack dab of those two. The film is not sure what it wants to be -- it starts out as a serious morality play and then takes a sharp right turn when the main character undergoes his mystical transformation into a bear.

The story goes that an Inuit gets transformed into a bear by his dearly departed brother to teach him a lesson after 86'ing a bear that the first brother thinks was responsible for the late brother's death. Then after the transformation, the brother bear seeks out the spirits to figure out what the dealyo is. Oh yes along the way, the third brother is hunting the brother bear cuz he thinks that the brother bear killed his brother (who actually is the bear). Confused? Yeah we all are. Then throw in talking bears and Moose who are along for the ride (literally on the back of some woolly mammoths) and you have a story. It actually comes across better in the movie, and I really only think that there is one big fault. What is that big fault? The intro is too long. Way too much 'serious time' is spent telling the backstory. I think if the producers had gone the way of Beauty and the Beast and dispensed with the backstory in about 5 minutes, it would have been a better flowing movie. Right now, the movie sputters during the too-long intro and the rest of the movie just can't quite make up for it. And don't even get me started on the Phil Collins songs.

This weekend was a washout in more ways than one. It started Friday night with a deluge at West Hollywood. There were hardly anyone there and overall it was not much fun. I managed to get soaked, and my smoking jacket bled red all over my shirt. I hate being wet - especially cold and wet.

Saturday, around 8 people came over to sit and drink and gab in a very low key affair. I think my desire for organizing gatherings has been hampered this year by all of the events going on in my personal life. It is difficult to get excited and pump all your friends up when you are riding the rollercoaster of emotions and feelings about some of the same people. Oh well, no one said life was easy. Thank goodness Susie made it down. She and I had our own party - we were the only ones drinking and stayed up until 2am.

On Sunday, we went to Disneyland to ride Haunted Mansion Holiday. I am not sure if I was still glum over the last few days, but I didn't really care for it as I had in past years. I was not impressed with the Oogie overlay, and I think last years was so much better. The Mansion is an ensemble piece and to focus that much attention on one character hurts the overall ride. I didn't let that disappointment hamper the time I had with Susie. We got our picture taken in front of the caste and at the Golden Gate Bridge at DCA. We didn't have time to go on anything over there, but she wanted to walk around it. She is like me - wanting to know how things are done so I had a great time explaining things to her.

I really do wish she lived closer or that I had more weekends off to go up and hang out with her. I told her that she needed to drop everything and run off with me around the country and the world. We both got excited at the prospect and were trying to figure out how we could afford it. Our best answer? Leading tours of "Lord of the Rings" sites in New Zealand. The thought of getting away from it all is very appealing to me these days, and then there is another part of me that just wants to make everything work together.

On top of it all I think I am fighting a wee bit of a cold. My throat is getting very Bea Aurthur-ish (as it likes to do this time of year) and I think it is part smoke and part sudden temperature drop (sheesh 2 weeks ago it was 95 - today it was 65 and pouring).

For all of you that asked, I will be posting some pics of the new eyebrows and from the gathering this weekend soon.