March 2004 Archives

Yesterday, I finally picked up my tickets to the Cast Member preview of the new Tower of Terror attraction that is set to open in May at DCA. It looks like the same group that went to the park in 2002 will be together again. Not sure how long Granny is going to last, but we will probably get her a wheelchair. Only Dianne, Amanda, and I are going on the actual ride, and for the rest of the day I am sure we will enjoy DCA since they have not been there except for a brief trip on Soarin'.

Oh, and I managed to post the Tokyo Disney Resort photos. No captions yet, and I am still organizing them, but for the most part they are all there. Still to come is my journal entries, the non-Disney Japan photos, and a new design for the Trip Diary section.

Man, I am still being bombarded with the latest worms and viruses. Today when I checked my email I had 30 messages - 20 of which were virus embedded. Oy!

It has been a tough week all around trying to get back into the swing of things. I think over the last couple of days, I am finally ready to get back to the site. Yesterday, I processed all of the Tokyo Disneyland pics and now I am working on the Tokyo DisneySea pics. After that, I will be typing up my Trip Diary and working on the Tokyo pics. It will be another massive site update. I might have to take down some of the old party pics just to make room, but only as a last resort.

Another thing to look for is a new pic on the homepage. I might just have a vote for it because I am not sure if I should put a classic pic or one from Tokyo.

I also don't know what is up with my email. I am getting tons of viruses each day now. It might be time to abandon the old josh email address for a new one that isn't posted so that I don't have to wade through the mountains of spam I get.

Just flew in from Tokyo. Let's see I left there around 6pm Monday Tokyo time and arrived here around 10am Pacific or 3am Tokyo time. Just to relive Monday all over again. Needless to say, my internal clock is a wee off.

Returned to over 400 pieces of junk mail as well as 6 virus attachments in my inbox as well as 7 voicemails on my cell phone. So far have just been relaxing a bit before I dive into transcribing my journals and uploading photos.

Total: around 700 or so photos not including the ones Jonathan took or ones Daniel took.

All in all, we had a great time there, but both of us are glad to be home. Full details soon....

OK, so if you haven't guessed from the clues (here and here) I gave you earlier, I will now reveal the location of my latest trip:

It all started one late January day with an e-mail from American about a super cheap airfare to Tokyo. Add to that the fact that Jonathan is there right now (OK, well in a different part of Japan, but close enough), and that we were able to secure a reasonably priced hotel was enough to convince Daniel and I to pony up the cash to go.

I am incredibly excited about the adventure that awaits in the Far East. I know it is going to be mega-culture shock - more so than when I was in Prague. Over the last six weeks, I have researched and explored the web in search of information of places to go and things to do. I think we have come up with a nice itinerary that is very flexible and with a Japan Rail Pass, very open in where we can go. The pass is only for seven days (probably Sat-Sat since we don't arrive in Tokyo until Friday afternoon). So for reference here are some of the sights that we are going to try and see:

Nikko and the Temples
Asakusa Temple
Kamakura Buddha
Ginza
Shibuya and the famous dog statue
Akihabara
Locations used in the filming of the movie Ringu - Izu
The Godjira Statue
Tokyo Tower
Hanae and Mt. Fuji
Kyoto (via Bullet Train!!)
a little place called the TOKYO DISNEY RESORT!

If possible and if time allows, we might use our rail passes to go all the way to Hiroshima to see the Peace Clock, but it is awfully far. One thing we might try is Overnighting in Kyoto, then going to Hiroshima the next morning and then returning to Tokyo that night. That does seem a bit ambitious and depends on how much time we spend in Tokyo itself. So far the Intellicast for Tokyo shows rain for a few days, but overall nice and fair weather.

I will try and post some entries from Cyber Cafes while I am there, but as with all vacations no promises! I will return on Monday the 22nd, so I will be getting at least the Gorn photos on the site within a day or two of that. I now have 2GB of memory for my camera so look for LOTS of pictures. I am a bit nervous about not having the ability to back the photos up onto a laptop - this will be the first overseas trip with a digital camera and now laptop!

See you in Tokyo!

I guess it has. One year ago yesterday I made the move to the OC. At the time I was going through a lot of changes in my life and dealing with all sorts of issues. Thankfully, most of them have been resolved - and I think for the better. I still miss life in Studio City and all the people associated with it. I do wish the parting was on better terms and that they could have remained a part of my life. I do know that some people are better with a clean break, and actually I think it has worked out for me as well. In the future, I hope I will be able to reconnect with some of the people.

Life in the OC has been pretty good, the Pooh ride opened and I eventually became a lead. I have gained Daniel as a close friend - despite the fact he drives me crazy, but hey that's what friends are for. I think the only thing missing in my life is that special someone, but whenever I consider the notion, I immediately get cold feet. I miss the companionship that I had (and to some extent Daniel fills the role nicely as the friend to hang out with), but he can't be here all the time, and he has his own friends and sig others to be with (despite the fact that.. well its best I not post that here **wink**). Another thing that I am lacking is a group of friends to hang with. I miss the old days of college when we had a group that would get together on a regular basis. Here it has happened a couple of times, but I'd really like some people who would like to get together for pizza and movies on a regular basis.

So going forward, I think I do need to focus on this friend thing. I am not ready to begin the search for "the one", but hey if one finds me than that is just fine.

As for my apartment, well, um, its a mess. Completely overrun with furniture and boxes and crud. Those who know me well know that I have a tendency to let papers and such stack up on the table and the desk. I really want to get this place into shape before I leave on Thursday so when I come home it is nice and neat and I can just relax.

Whenever I go on vacation (and I have mused on this before) things have changes dramatically at work while I was gone. I think WDW was more of a personal change than anything, but Tahiti and all of the Europe trips have really thrown me for a loop. I am super-sensitive to things before I leave, and I don't really see anything coming down the horizon (maybe some cross training or shuffling of the staff??) but then again, if I saw it coming then it wouldn't be such a shock would it?

As I leave for vacation on Thursday, I would have to say at this moment in time exactly (and it will change I am sure later tonight) I feel pretty darn good about life and myself. There are still pangs of doubt, but I like where I am going. It certainly isn't a dull trip.

I have always wanted to watch this movie. I knew that Roger Ebert wrote the screenplay way back in 1970 and that it was directed by Russ Meyer so I knew it had to be good. Well, it was so bad it was good. It is definitely a cult classic from the get go. Groovy music, characters and some weird plot makes this a must see (well at least once). It wasn't my intention to watch it, but Daniel and I were up late on Saturday night hanging out and we were channel surfing and some how we ended up on it.

Another movie we had caught a bit of was Amityville Horror 2: The Possession. We made it about 45 minutes into it before Daniel declared it was stupid. I don't know if I agree, I spent several lengthy minutes watching the movie in Josh-vision (hands over eyes, peering through the fingers ever now and then, and sometimes pretending to watch the movie, but really reading the titles on the videos above the TV), but it was pretty bad.

Also on the agenda for the weekend was another viewing of Ringu. Once again it creeped the booboojeebies out of me, but it was neat seeing places that I might visit in a week! I was writing down some of the sights in the movie and seeing how far they were.

I am so excited about the trip. Only one more work day (tomorrow) and then Wednesday I'll be packing and planning. Then its off on Thursday! I'll post details about the trip on Wednesday and hopefully I'll be able to post some updates to the site while I am gone.

I had some extra time on my hands the last day or so and I decided to put into the DVD player some discs I have been wanting to watch for awhile. First up: Star Trek Nemesis. I still agree with my review from when I saw it in the theaters, but at least the DVD makes the film look all nice and shiny. The special features were OK, but nothing on the level of the Trek 1-6 stuff. I did notice how easily those DVD menus look to make, but from my one time trying to master them for my Covina Chaos movie, I know they can be hard. I just wish I was that good at graphics.

The other movie I dropped into the player was Monty Python and the Holy Grail. This time out, I listened to the Michael Palin, Eric Idle, and John Cleese commentaries. After all these years, this thing still cracks me up in all the right places and listening to the Pythons made it even more so. I was a bit put off that each person was obviously recorded separate from each other, but the editors blended it together nicely. Palin gets most of the time - I wanted to hear more from Eric Idle. Cleese comes off as a bit pompous, but it is hard to tell if it is an act or if that really is him. I had watched the extras before, but I still enjoy seeing the Japanese translation version of the French Soldier taunting the Knights of the Round Table.

Wendy and Mice were down this weekend at the park and it was nice to see them again. Despite some rain, we enjoyed a nice dinner at the ESPN Zone at Downtown Disney. As we were walking into the place, I mentioned that I had only ever eaten there once before. They replied "That was with us!" The food was actually good and the portions were large - add to it a 20% discount and some Hagen Das afterwards, it was a nice night out.

I passed them in the park while I was walking with a co-worker. He didn't know they were my friends, but he saw Mice posing for a picture with Lizard and leaned over to me and said "Are they friends of yours?" I laughed and mentioned, "Actually, Yes". He then recommended that I set up an inanimate object travel site. The wheels began to turn and then I was like "Nah - too much work!"