April 2004 Archives

Man has it been warm the last few days. Nothing really exciting has been going on, mainly due to the fact that I have been worn out working out in the sun. I am now entering a stretch of 7 consecutive days of work (thanks scheduling!) before another day off. Me thinks I am going to be super pooped.

The worst part is that I have so much cleaning and organizing to do around the house as well as on the site. Some of you savvy users might have noticed that I have replaced Atomz with Google as the search engine on the site. The main reason I did it was because Atomz was limited to 500 pages indexed and my Daily Update section is way more than that alone. So hopefully the search results will be more accurate.

I was tinkering with some redesigns of the site the other day but I am stuck on a compatibility issue. I like to design for 800x600 because I know my dad's work computer and my laptop can only display that without side scrolling. The problem comes with trying to make the site look as good with all the high tech people out there with massive resolution on their monitors. I will probably stick to the same general center alignment. Club Josh turns nine in June. It would be nice to have something new - at least for the homepage which is very stale since it debuted in September 2001.

Well I have now been on Tower of Terror at DCA 5 times - three times on the middle shaft and once each on the ends. If you are facing the front of the attraction the shafts are Alpha, Bravo, and Charlie. I like Charlie the best, just because the show sequences are better. So far, the drop sequences have all been similar - no sign of the randomizer that was supposed to be installed. Either that or I just haven't noticed.

On Tuesday, Granny, Jerri, Dianne, Amanda, and I headed out for a brief visit to DCA. I managed to get Dianne and Amanda on Tower. Granny liked the plants on the Heimlich Chew Chew Train and was ready to jump behind the counter at the Tortilla Factory to show the guy how to make a better tortilla sandwich. All had a good time, but they all wanted to go back to Disneyland. They liked DCA, but as with most people, they just have fond memories of DL and prefer to go there.

It was the first time I had an opportunity to walk around DCA since returning from the Tokyo Disney Resort. If you ask me, the Grizzly Peak area and Flik's Fun Fair would have easily fit into Tokyo Disney Sea (most of the rides are already there in the Mermaid Lagoon), but the rest of the park really does not stand up in a themeing competition. DCA's main advantage is the number of unique attractions - ironically in the most derided area Paradise Pier. DCA has a total of 8 unique attractions - second in Disney parks only to EPCOT. So overall, I still like DCA as a park on its own. Its a nice place to spend a day (or at least a part of a day).

Is DCA the best Disney park? Heck no - that would be Tokyo Disney Sea. Is it the worst park? Not even close - that would be the Disney MGM Studios in Florida. (I'm going to get a lot of flack for that one, but it has no unique attractions - if it didn't have the best Tower of Terror who knows how low it would go. Even Walt Disney Studios Paris has a unique attraction.). One of these days I'll have to put out my list of best vs. worst of the Disney parks.

Today I got a rare treat. Not only did my ride operator shift turn into a working lead shift, but towards the end of the shift there was an all-call on the radio that Henry was having me carry. They were evacuating Pirates and all available help was needed. So Henry and I trudged over to the ride and proceeded to lend a hand. I thought my duties were going to be limited to the last time I helped evac Pirates - directing people to the appropriate exit. No, No, this time I was in for more fun.

After walking all over the place and up a ladder, I ended up (somehow) in the scene where Ol' Bill is. He's the one with the cats and says "Here Kitty Kitty, how's about a drink with Ol' Bill". Many of you loyal readers know that is one of my favorite Pirates lines to quote. So as we sort out what needs to be done, some lady has an asthma attack and several guests proceed to carry her out of the ride through the water. Then I volunteer to put on the hip waders and get into the water to help push the boats back to a point where we can safely unload the guests. I did my best to put them at ease, but I really was enjoying the hip waders and just the experience of it all. Some of the guests were plenty mad, but most were in good spirits and were glad that someone was there chatting with them and helping to push their boat out.

It certainly was a nice change of pace and it makes me want to learn Pirates more. Of course as I was in the middle of the water, the Pooh ride broke down - luckily just a station backup - but I had a feeling it was going to happen.

Yesterday, all us cast members who were working received permission to go on Tower of Terror in costume. It was actually a lot of fun. I tried to get some people I knew to go with me, but I was in a hurry to get there because I had to get back to the Pooh ride before I started. The ride itself was great. I did feel that it looked like they squeezed it in there as opposed to the Florida version which has this big buildup to get to it. Next Tuesday, I will get to go on it multiple times so I am sure I will get to appreciated the boiler room to the fullest since that is what everyone is raving about. I did notice lots of detail, but when there is no line and you are in a hurry, you don't get a chance to take in it all. From a brief first impression, Journey to the Center of the Earth is still the king of detail and theming.

Today I slept in until late afternoon to recover from the non-stop working of Thursday night and all day Friday. I am glad I had the chance to recover, I am not really wanting to get sick again!

I scanned the only ride photo that we bought while we were at the Tokyo Disney Resort.

Here it is:

I especially like our facial expressions, despite the fact Daniel insist I have the same look as our Tower of Terror Photo from Florida. You decide..

Well I've 90% recovered from my bug that hit after the Finger Incident of 2004. Sadly, the finger is still worse for the wear and makes typing difficult. I am back to my 1995 level of typing - aka the hunt and peck. It's to difficult to try and type normally since I keep tapping my ring finger too hard. Lookswise, most of the nasty coloration has gone, but there is still some good swelling and stiffness. The nurse at work said it would be a few weeks before everything was back to normal. Last night I did a dramatic recreation of what happened to some of the crew. While they were amused, I still could not believe that it happened in the first place.

I get to finish my taxes today - whee. I actually did them a few months ago, but since I owe this year I decided to wait until now to e-file.

I did sort the Tokyo pics (all 240 or so) of them according to areas of Tokyo. I should be able to finally get them up soon. It will take me longer than expected for the trip diary thanks to the Finger Incident. Jonathan has sent some more pics from Tokyo from this past week. Man was I jealous - it looks so nice and sunny there.

Man do I feel terrible. My finger is on the mend, but I think the shock of it has finally opened the door for the flu to get me. It feels similar to the one I struggled through last summer, I just hope I don't end up in the emergency room again. The worst part is the aches and pains - I'm not very feverish, I just have a sore lower back and pounding headaches. Good thing I have my Saltines and some water around!

Last night at work, I was in rotation sending a break for someone. I was loading some guests and after I had closed the third door on the beehive, the guest asked if they could sit in the back row. So I reached down and unlatched the door. Somehow, when I was removing my left ring finger, it got caught. So when I tried to pull it out, I jammed it real bad. It's all black and blue now and hurts and throbs all the time. I have been taking some Advil and icing it every couple of hours or so, but man it hurts.

I decided to stay home from work today so I could ice it on a regular basis. Hopefully, I will be OK to go back to work tomorrow. I will try and get a pic of my mangled finger up here. The sucky part is that it takes forever to type so no captioning for awhile on the site.

Is the statue traveling? Nah, I visited all four!

For those of you who are not Disney experts the order is: Disneyland in California, Magic Kingdom in Florida, Tokyo Disneyland in Japan, and the Walt Disney Studios in France.

I put them in the order of my favorites - I wish Paris' statue was in the Disneyland Park that way I could have four castle shots. It is kind of a bad sign when the backdrop for your statue is the Backlot Tram Tour.