Full Disclosure: I work for the Walt Disney Company
It is an interesting time for the company. In the last year I have seen things turn around at Disneyland for the better, thanks mainly to the new president of the resort and the people he has brought into the ranks of management. They are beginning to bring back the sense of pride in Disneyland that has been missing for many years, and I am glad to be part of it.
I had the extreme pleasure of giving an attraction overview of the Pooh Ride to the Documentation Coordinator for Hong Kong Disneyland. You see, our Pooh ride is being exported over to HK, and as the Core Trainer at the ride, I got the honors. She was a very nice lady who had a good time, despite being a bit overwhelmed by all the information. After three hours, I managed to get a business card and after I mentioned that I was planning on going to Hong Kong after the park opened, she told me to call her when I was there - very cool! Hopefully, they will be looking for trainers to go to the park and help with the opening and I might get a chance. Suuure..
The countdown continues - just over two weeks until the secret vacation. Still a bit nervous and unsure, but thanks to all the sites and books I have been reading, I think I have a good handle on what I want to do when I am there. Jonathan will be a big help giving us an orientation of the city while we are there. Oh, and its a-rainin' again here in LA. Notice how I said 'a-rainin' the 'a' prefix indicates a large event is happening - or should I say a-happening?
Nothing like a rainy weekend in LA to set the world on its ear. You see everyone here has forgotten what it is like to drive in the rain. As a result, they all drive the same speed and get in some spectacular accidents. Here at the apartment complex, a lake forms around my parking spot so that I need to jump or walk the long way around in order to get from the car to the apartment. At work, it wasn't raining hard enough to make the ride stop, just enough to get everyone cold and wet. This is alarming to me because with the secret trip coming up in three weeks, the last thing I want to do is get sick. I have started on the Echinacea and vitamins and will soon add the Vitamin C/Zinc combo to my regiment so that I can avoid anything. I'm also trying to get to bed earlier. (Not really working tonight though...)
One bright spot this weekend was today when I was at Load, I got to escort Cal Ripken onto the ride. Pretty cool - it was nice to have a group that was organized and not prone to breaking the ride down. I also got to see Lev and family at the park today. It was the first time I had seen the newest addition to the family. I certainly wish we all got a chance to get together more often.
One more Gorn note - according to the Gallery program, there are currently 399 Gorn photos on the site!! (actually 404 since there are 5 in the AV Day 2003 Gallery I haven't copied over yet...)
All of the Gorn Photos are now in the Gallery program. It was so easy to do now that I am not concerned with having a unique identifier on each page. I did archive all of the old HTML files just in case I need to refer to them at a later date. I think they look so much better with the bigger thumbnails that part of me wants to go and remaster some of the older photos to a bigger size. Oh well. I did have to re-do the Walt Disney World 2000 photos because they were just linking to the photos in the Trip Diaries section to save space. This will make posting Gorn photos that much quicker and easier.
I am now wondering what to do with the Trip Diaries site. I need to redesign and move photos around over there, but it is such a huge undertaking. What is worse, I have an idea for it, but something about it just isn't right. I have a weird way of designing web pages. I tinker and tinker, then put it away, then tinker some more, and then eventually it goes on the site. There is the rare occasion where I will get an idea and hammer it out in a day, but the last time that happened was in with the redesign of the home page. Speaking of which, mine is beginning to look retro-cool since it has been on the site for almost 2.5 years. I'd re-do it, but I like it so much. I have some gurgles in the back of my mind on where I'd like to see it go.
One of the consequences of all the changes is that you might find an old link somewhere that won't work. Let me know if you find any!
Apparently, Hitbox.com decided to discontinue their free web stats tool. According to their site, they sent out emails, but since I have been with them since August 27, 1997, I am sure they sent it to the wrong address. Bad News? Five years of data is down the drain. I'm not sad because it was something neat to look at, but I never followed it closely. Also, since I started Clubjosh.com in 1999 I have had server stats anyways. The good news is that my main issue with migrating all the photos to gallery has been resolved. I no longer need to worry about stats tracking. I have managed to remove all of those annoying casino banners with the exception of some of the old Gorn and Party photo galleries. Since I will be migrating, I decided not to sit here and go through each gallery. Of course If I am surfing on the site I will be sure to remove it when I see it. I also managed to quickly update my Jarre collection. Man, that section needs some TLC!!
Spent a great relaxing weekend with Mom and Gary. No agendas, no plans. I felt a bit guilty for sleeping in most of the time but it was worth it. It really felt good to just get away from it all and unwind. While I was there, we did a bit of shopping for the secret trip. I picked up a guide to the secret place from Lonely Planet. I really liked their French Polynesia guide from the 2001 trip, and so far I am happy with the current book.
The big score from the weekend was in the luggage department of Macy's. We were at the Scottsdale Mall wandering around and were looking in the different department stores to see if they had any deals on luggage. I need to replace my old set courtesy of Mom in her SkyMall days due to excessive wear and tear. We entered the mall through Macy's and gave it a cursory look. Nothing notable seemed to present itself. We made our way down to Robinson-May and noticed that they had a set of 4 variable size bags for $99. After some hemming and hawing, they convinced me to get it. While I was inspecting which set I wanted, the sales lady (who was already getting on Mom's last nerve) mentioned that a lot of people were having issues with the luggage and not getting good responses from the company. I agreed with Mom that the lady probably didn't want to deal with any return hassles.
So we ended up at Dillard's. I fell in love with this deep plum 26" rollaway from Skyway. It looked so elegant. I felt like I was going to be traveling in first class. Mom convinced me to keep looking (especially since there was a Dillard's closer to her house that we could get the bag from if indeed we didn't see anything else.) So we headed back for the car at Macy's empty handed. I decided to make a b-line for the luggage area. Mom told me to check the price on this one 30" bag that appeared to have five different prices on it. When I went over to the scanner, it registered "Regular $117 - On Sale $35". I checked the other price tag, "Regular $350 - On Sale $80". Mom told me that one way or another that bag was leaving with us. I told her there was no way they would sell it for $35. Mom replied, "Watch Me!" Off she went over to the counter and sure enough they sold it to her.
So now I get to borrow the steal of the century for the secret trip. When I got it back home I couldn't help but think how is this huge suitcase going to fit in that dinky hotel room. Somehow, I will manage!
The other big events for the weekend included the world premiere of Covina Chaos the DVD for Mom and Kevin. Both liked it. It's now time to start work on Dome to Dome Twice. One problem: I'm thinking about taking the laptop with me since I want to download the pics so that I can be sure to have enough space. I am toying with just picking up some CF cards while I am there if I need them (like buying more rolls of film). If I do take the laptop, then the hard drive I need to digitize Dome to Dome will have to stay external meaning that I will have to wait until I get back to start work on the DVD.
Decided to take advantage of an unexpected four day weekend and head off to see Mom and Gary in Phoenix. I was going to try and give them my table, but, alas it would not fit into the back of the CRV. This is the weekend that we normally have A-V Day, but it never materialized. And to think, the year I finally have a lot to be bitter about!! Wendy and Mice are coming down for the Leap Day, so hopefully Susie can make it as well and we can have an A-V/Leap Day party instead.
It has been awhile since I have driven to Phoenix, and certainly the first time I have done it alone. Should be an interesting six hours. I just need to step up and get going before the traffic gets bad!!!!
Last night, Daniel and I sat down and watched Lost In Translation. I had heard lots of good things about it and considering we are making a secret trip to the place prominently featured in the film, we thought it would be a good flick to watch to get us prepared.
Honestly, the film isn't nearly as good as people say it is. I liked it, but it wasn't one of those "Man this is a great flick" reactions. I really liked Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson (who gets to have her panty-claded hiney in full cinemascope as the opening titles form under it - kept reminding me of "From Russia With Love, but I digress) - both of whom give such nuance performances that were right on the mark. Let's be honest, the movie is funny, but it is a character study of two people who are having a miserable time in a VERY foreign place until they happen to run into each other at the Hotel's bar. I kept telling Daniel don't expect our hotel to be that luxurious.
The pace of the movie was a bit slow for me. I enjoyed the lavish panoramas and 'tourist walking around in bewilderment' scenes, but at certain times in the movies I felt the whole thing come crashing to a grinding halt.
As for the DVD, it includes some nifty stuff like a home movie of behind the scenes of the movie as well as some deleted scenes (which I was glad they deleted), a theatrical trailer, a music video, and an interview with some of the cast and crew.
If you are into character pieces or travel its a must-see, but if you are looking for hilarity then go elsewhere.
Well I have spent a better part of three days cleaning up the comments section of the Daily Update. I finally weeded out all of the spam, but I had to resort to going entry-by-entry to do it. I tried to install Jay Allen's MT-Blacklist, but it didn't like me very much. I kept getting a mysterious error that I have noticed other people have been getting as well:
An error occurred: The Blacklist config directory you specified (/mt/extlib/jayallen/Blacklist_Config/) does not exist. at extlib/jayallen/Blacklist.pm line 2033.
No one seems to know how to get it started. I also tried mt-close to close all of the older entries on the site, but alas, that didn't work either. Andy suggested I just run a command on the database directly, but honestly I have no idea how to do that either.
In the meantime, I have upgraded to MT 2.661 in an attempt to try and ward off spammers as long as I can. I hope 3.0 beta gets here soon. I want to install it ASAP (even though it is a beta) because I want to enable comment registration. I guess it is a sign of maturity that my site gets hit by spammers.
Seems Club Josh got hammered by a bot that posts spam comments. Of course, I just discovered this right before leaving for work so there is not much I can do right now. However, I will be installing a new version of MT that will help stop the spam. v3.0 will be released soon and it will force people who comment to register. Im not that big of a fan of that, but I'm sure my regular set of commenters won't mind that little extra step (hopefully!). In the mean time, I'm afraid I am going to have to go through all 454 posts and disallow commenting. Ugh, that is going to take forever!!!!!!! I have to go through most of them anyway since it looks like the spammers got to almost every post in the archives.
Mice has a secret that he posted on his site. I figured if he can be that brave then I will too. Your only clue is the following picture:
Need more help? Click MORE for some additional photos...
I tried really hard to get more updates onto the site, but I have been busy with crazy schedules at work. I did want to fire off a quick update on some movies and TV shows.
Twin Peaks Fire Walk With Me: An oldie, but goodie. Dunno why I have been in a Peaks mood lately, but I did manage to get Daniel to sit down with me and watch the DVD of FWWM. Man, I love this movie. I know Daniel was lost during most of it (He's only ever seen the pilot), but I enjoyed seeing it over and over. It has gotten to the point where I can recite lines from it. Sad, oh so Sad. I wish season 2 of the series was on DVD so I can sit down and have a marathon that I have been wanting for a long time.
Star Trek VI - The Undiscovered Country: Another Trek movie has made it onto DVD with all sorts of expanded features. Save for the disc art error on disc 2 (they show the Enterprise-B from Generations), this is a great set. I really enjoyed the features and of course the text commentary. I never would have guessed that it was the same bridge from Trek V - they did a great job of transforming it. Now its time for Generations and First Contact SE's to replace my laserdiscs! I was thinking that I should finally sit down and watch Nemesis - I suppose I'll get to it eventually.
Airline: Totally Daniel's fault. He started watching it and made me TiVo it. Now I am hooked. It follows crews from Southwest Airlines as they deal with issues at LAX and Chicago Midway. It airs on A&E and I think it is one of the best reality shows out there.
Survivor All Stars: What can I say? It's back - I haven't watched the full thing yet, but the snippets I have seen prove that this might be the best show yet. Now if only Amazing Race was on!!!!
That's all in the roundup.
