September 2004 Archives

Today was a day of good timing. I headed over to the park today to check out the new Haunted Mansion Holiday as well as partake in a pizza and sundae bar event for West Side CMs that was held by Indiana Jones. When I finished riding the Mansion, I ran into Andy (someone I work with on the Boats). We chatted for a bit, and then when we parted ways, I ran into Mice and Wendy and Baby who are in town for the Mansion event. We chatted for a bit then I headed to the event backstage. When I arrived, I ran into Vishal who was just showing up. So we ate and chatted and then rode Indy to check out the new snake they installed a few days ago - looks nice!

After Indy, I ran into a bunch of people from the Pooh ride and then decided to head down to Laguna Beach to see Jason on his last day at the shop he was working at down there. When I arrived, he was just leaving to go have lunch. We hung out for a bit and then I headed home. Pretty nice that I caught everyone at the right time!

I wandered over to Fry's this afternoon and discovered they no longer sell 8mm camcorders (just Digi-8 and Mini DV). I am still trying to find a camera so I can digitize the 4 tapes I have from Tahiti and Hawaii. I might just break down and send them off to get converted.

Jean Michel Jarre's new CD+DVD, Aero, finally arrived in my mailbox today - not bad only a week after release! The concept behind the album is that Jarre has taken some of his classic tracks (Oxy 4, Chronologie 6, etc) as well as three new tracks and remastered them all in 5.1 Dolby Digital and DTS. The case contains the DVD with an accompanying video of a French Actress' eyes which plays for 73 minutes, as well as a "Super Stereo" CD.

I was blown away by the DVD versions. Jarre really has outdone himself - he has given new life to these tracks. Personally, I would love to hear a complete 5.1 album of original music by him - hopefully we'll get that in the next release. For those of you who don't want to import, the US version will be coming out sometime in November via Warner subsidiary, Rhino Records. I bought mine through CD Quest, which although pricey because it was an import was nice because they shipped from Irvine and it arrived in just 2 business days.

After listening to the DVD versions, I popped the CD version into my DVD player. It was amazing how "Super Stereo" sounded like an old AM radio or a low bitrate MP3.

William Shatner's website for his new album "Has Been" has been updated - check it out!

Of note: Bill will be signing autographs at Tower Records at 8pm the day it will be released - Tuesday October 5. It's the famous one up on Sunset Blvd in West Hollywood. I so want to go to get a photo of the Gorn with him. I don't know if I have to work or not. I hope I can get away. It appears they are giving away wristbands starting at 9am. Oy what an opportunity!!

So far my favorite track is "Common People" which is the first track when you load the web site.

Also in the music world, I am eagerly awaiting Jean Michel Jarre's new Aero album which is mastered in Dolby Digital 5.1. The web site is way cool and makes me want it more!!

On Tuesday I headed over to the local Wal-Mart. I try and avoid it since the one here near my house is usually overrun with kids and is a mess. But the word in the offices at work was that they had the lowest price on the Star Wars trilogy DVD set. When I went there around 8pm, they only had three copies of the widescreen left. while browsing the aisles, I also came across Home on the Range as well as Star Trek Generations. Generations was recalled and was not supposed to be out since it was recalled due to a packaging snafu (apparently the trailers were left off and the packaging had them included). But I guess my local Wal Mart didn't get the memo or didn't care and had it proudly on sale.

Which one did I tear open and watch? Generations of course! I was very surprised and happy. One of my complaints about the movie was that I thought it was too dark, but on this DVD the balance has been corrected and it looks great. I am still not entirely happy with the whole Kirk death thing, but the movie grows on you - it certainly is better than Nemesis.

I did manage to watch Episode 4 on DVD last night. It was fantastic! The film has never looked better and the special features were very cool - especially some of the closing credit video bits. I haven't explored the whole set, but I'm happy.

I was also happy that Chip and Kim won the Amazing Race. I thought they were sunk when they were lagging on the Continental Divide. I was worried that Colin and whiny Christie would get it a la Flo and Zack, but all prevailed in the end. I think its the first time the team I rooted for won.

Traffic this month is out of control!! Not since the Charo Sprint PCS ad aired a few years ago and when Milkandcookies.com linked to the Gorn page, have I seen such a spike.

Normally, Club Josh averages about 10,000 hits a day (yeah I know the stats on the Club House section are out of date). Our new daily record was set on Labor Day (the day after the first episode of Surreal Life aired) with almost 40,000 accesses to the server. At this rate, I will be way over the 10GB transfer allotment on my server. So what did I do? I went and added a bunch of new Charo photos to the site courtesy of RJ in New York. He was kind enough to send me a CD with over 100 photos of her concert at the Duchess County Fairgrounds. Far be it for me to miss out on a chance to update the site when people are looking.

To put it all in perspective. Club Josh used to get 8000 hits a month. To the whole site. I wish my stats went back that far. But even in October of last year the Charo section had 98,000 accesses for the month. Last month, it had 234,000. The Gorn is way down - or I should say more normal. Last October is when the infamous linking occurred on a bunch of blogs so it pulled in a record 50,000. (It currently sits around 30,000 a month). And what fills the space between Charo and the Gorn?? Disneyland Paris of course. DLP has long been one of the highest trafficked areas on the site going way back to the UCD era.

I think if traffic keeps up (and its already starting to cool off thankfully), but just in case it keeps going up and up, I might just have to pony up the cash for a dedicated server.

Last night I was reading a random update on TrekWeb, and I came across a site called Hidden Frontier. Its a bunch of Star Trek fans who have essentially created a new series and made a bunch of 30 min episodes. The stories are set aboard Deep Space 12 and the starship Excelsior who are stationed in the Briar Patch and must deal with all sorts of stuff, including a mysterious people called the Grays (whom I suspect abducted people from Earth in the mid 20th century).

The show is filmed in front of a Green Screen and then backgrounds from various episodes of DS9, Voyager, TNG, and the movies are projected on them. It doesn't help the flow of the scenes because they pretty much have to film most actors separately on the bridge, with occasionally them together. My favorite is an old upholstered chair on the bridge. But I digress.

Rob Caves who is the executive producer of the series also manages most of the effects shots - which really are quite good (and I think better than most Sci-Fi on the air these days). I really wish there was more information about the cast and the crew on their bare-bones site.

As for the acting - um, well, yeah. I've made it through almost the whole second "season" and it has gotten a bit better, but it still is pretty painful. The sad part is that I already have some favorite characters (I like the Counselor and the Doctor the best - the captain is so -so, but he has grown on me). More kudos to the fact they aren't afraid to do fanciful episodes (like the one where they go back to the Titanic (episode 104 "Two Hours", or the one when "Sulu" and the original Excelsior come into the 24th century in an ode to both Battlestar Galactica and the famous TNG episode "Yesterday's Enterprise" (Episode 202 "Yesterday's Excelsior"). They have also had some "serious" episodes involving depression driven suicide, parenting, guilt, and oh yes, gay romance.

Like I said, I'm addicted. It is like the train wreck where you don't want to watch because it is so bad, but you keep watching anyway. Maybe I just keep hoping it will get better (and actually it has). Actually, I think I am just jealous. I think of what Alex, Kris, and I did back on the couch in 1987 and think if only they had the technology then. Sigh. Maybe I can just guest star with the Gorn.

Yeah I admit I have it. I have a jones to go somewhere again, but I can't figure out where. I have 10 days off in October near my birthday that was going to be for one thing, but now it needs to be used for another (its a long story). So I have narrowed it down to basically three trip options. One is the reasonable, don't spend a lot of money trip. One is the trip I have always dreamed of, and the third is a cool place that I've wanted to go to for about three days.

Now naturally, most sane people would be telling me "Go on your dream trip!" My only problem with that is time and money. Since I only have 10 days, I think I'd be rushed to see everything that I'd want to see. The problem with the reasonable trip is that it might be too late to see the best stuff in the area - and let's face it, it is a domestic trip and if you have the opportunity to go international, then I say go international!! The three day desired trip's main drawback is that it is to foreign language speaking area that would be great if I was with someone (matter of fact Nathan mentioned if he was still jobless he wouldn't mind tagging along).

So we shall see where the wanderlust will take me. I just know I want to get away. Of course, I could just go buy a box of Calgon and take a bath. Naaaa.

Swapped out the tires that came with my CR-V with some top of the line Michelin's. Man what a difference it makes on the road. I now have a much smoother ride and now don't fear that I am going to slide through an intersection in the rain. I always remember when I had the Accord and was working at Edmunds and I almost slid halfway into an intersection in West LA. Quite the scary feeling.

I set up my aunt's laptop for my grandma yesterday. We were going to get signed up with AOL. Everything was going good, until it said it needed 340 minutes to download updates to the software. Who are they kidding? You mean to tell me that before you can even use the service you have to spend over 6 hours waiting? It seems excessive and overwhelming with someone who is not familiar with computers. Now we are looking at other options.

Part of my Grandma's difficulty is that the laptop is Windows 2000 so you have to log into it. I think if it was XP or 98 and it loaded directly into the desktop, it would be a tad easier. I told her just to practice logging in and out and then we would have a more in depth lesson later.

It is amazing the amount of things that can happen in a 24 hour period that can completely alter your life. I mentioned before that I have been having issues with a friend and now they have finally hit a head where we are not on speaking terms. It seems so high school, but sometimes it is for the best. I won't go into great detail, but rest assured as before things will eventually work themselves out for the better. I always think of Sweet Charity when she gets dumped at the end of the movie and people ask her why she is OK. She then replies, "When you hit the bottom, there is no where to go but up!" That saying has kept me going many times - especially it seems in the last few years.

In other news, Nathan was in Vegas for the last few days, and I briefly hatched a plan to go and see him, but alas all this nastiness got in the way. I have some open vacation time now, so I might just have to pay him a visit in Boston when he gets settled. I might even get a chance to see Andy in his natural element.

Cooper and I have been IM'ing most of the night. He has reminded me one of the best things to do when you are down is to buy yourself something nice. We shall see what comes out of it. I gotta be careful though - I have a full plate of DVDs coming out in the next three months so I have to save up! Another thing we chatted about was maybe moving somewhere in 2 years.. Fingers crossed!

Charo is on season 3 of the Surreal Life on VH-1. I have never seen the show, but I had to watch the premiere episode. It actually was pretty funny. Looks like Brigitte and Flava Flav are getting most of the air time, but Charo still holds her own. It will be interesting to see how it progresses over the next few weeks. You can watch the new episodes Sundays at 10pm (9 central).

Been busy busy wrapping up the website for Haim. Not much else going on. I did help my Dad get a new SUV to replace his Navigator. It is quite the ride. It actually costs less than a Lincoln Navigator and a fully loaded BMW X5! It is actually very similar to the VW Toureag, but much more luxurious. When I got to drive it home from the dealer (downtown LA to the suburbs) I was getting looks from everyone. I think I need to borrow it next time I go out on the town.