June 2005 Archives

Ten years ago today, one of my co-workers at UC Davis let me put a single web page up on one of our servers. It wasn't much, just a photo of me, some text about myself, and some links to some web sites that I really liked. One of the first things I added to the site was photos of the Gorn traveling the world. Within a year, the site grew to include my Movie Czar Reel Reviews, my online video catalog, Disneyland Paris photos, and my own resort island page. It is funny to look back over ten years and realize the backbone of the site was up by 1997, and since then it has been add something here and drop something there.

The early days of Club Josh were plagued by server crashes (but hey when it’s on a low-priority server, that tends to happen. November 1997, we finally moved to 2xtreme.net (are they still around?). They didn't last too long because in June of 1998 for the third anniversary, we migrated to JPS.net. June of 2000 we finally moved to clubjosh.com (of course it took several months to get the whole thing organized.

The Daily Update launched in October 2000 and personally, the fact I still do it (though not nearly as much as I like) is amazing. Then again, the fact I have had a web site for 10 years is also amazing. Wait... The fact people actually read my website is amazing.

The dark years of 2002-2004 certainly saw a major slowdown in the development of the site. I think part of it was burnout from working at Edmunds, other since working at Disney I have had less time to spend in front of a computer playing with the site. The latter half of 2004 started to see things pick up, and hopefully it will continue.

What lies ahead for the site? Well if you read yesterday's post, you will see I have some ambitious plans. Since I already have the domain name and really can't move the site, I guess I just need more control of the server - so before I go to Hong Kong in August, I will port over the site. In a way, I hope that in this tenth anniversary year I will lay the infrastructure to let Club Josh grow in the next 10 years and beyond, wherever my little brain takes me.

I'm glad you are all here and special thanks to Cooper, Joe, Susie, Robert, Dave H., Haim, Reed, Peggy, Matt, Kris, and Mom for giving me tips, technical advice, and being the beta testers whenever I needed one.

Since it is already Tuesday in Hong Kong, I have uploaded the first two pages of the redesign. The Home Page and the Club House page have been freshened up with a nice clean look. Both are very similar in style because essentially, the Club House is my idea of the home page part 2.

I think the new style is cleaner - especially compared the the almost four year old yellow. I have to admit that it will be a bit weird getting used to the new design having spent so much time with the last one. Two things pulled from the site are the contact information and the expanded what's new listings on the home page. I was getting bad at updating them. My current plan is to put all the What's New into Movable Type (OK, it is not a new plan, but one that has been around forever) and then having some sort of include on the home page which shows the latest updates.

As for the Club House, I wanted to have a photo of me on vacation, and I chose one of my favorite shots of being on vacation in Tahiti. I did have to crop it a bit to make it fit, so all you get is my lovely elbow. The Club House has never been redesigned since its launch in March 2002, and boy did it need it. There is lots more to do in that section like removing most of the photo galleries, and switching up the layout, but for now a fresh coat of paint will do.

Why did it take so long? Mainly because I was very happy with the old design, and it wasn't until recently that I felt that some sort of refresh was due. I struggled for awhile coming up with the direction and the style I wanted and there was at least three different aborted attempts. Maybe when I write the Behind the scenes of Club Josh book, I will include all the concept ideas.

What's ahead? In no particular order: New server, more travel photos, redesign of the trip diaries (some go back to 1998 era design), Splitting Charo site to its own domain, update Doingworld, re-do Jarre section (I admit this is waaaaay down on the list), port What's New into MT, depricate the mobile, HDML, and PDA sites and make a new Club Josh lite that will be accessible via PDA, Cell Phones, and any other device.

Well that is all for now, enjoy the new pages, and stay tuned for more to come! The comments section works again (you do have to register with Typepad though - its free!) so let me know what you think.

One of the things that I wanted to do before the launch of the redesign was to backup the existing site. After many days, I finally was able to get all 450+MB of the site backed up locally. Now I can go through and clean house.

I have two envelope backs full of notes on what to do and how to re-organize everything, but I think for the most part only the main page and the Club House page will be redesigned by next Tuesday. Other back-end stuff will probably take place in the next few weeks leading up to the eventual migration of certain parts of the site into their own little worlds.

I am thisclose to getting the Virtual Dedicated Server, but there are still some details to work out. If I had the weekend off, I would most certainly have it up and running by Tuesday, but since I will be working, I am allotting some extra time to it.

California has had 4 moderate to large earthquakes in the last five days, and I have felt a grad total of zero. I feel so left out! Two of which I can understand - Tuesday's 7.0 and Today's 6.4 quakes off of Eureka coastline were a bit out of the "Did you feel it?" range for So Cal. However Sunday's 5.2 and today's 4.9 centered out near Palm Springs was certainly felt by many in the LA area, just not me.

Sunday, I was at work walking around the outside getting ready for the onslaught of guests. One of my CM's told me that our Photo Edit position was rolling back and forth, but sadly I didn't feel a thing. Today, Daniel and I were at IKEA picking up a few odds and ends for his new place when the temblor hit. Mom even gave me a ring to see if I was OK and if I felt it, but alas, I felt nothing in the sea of Billy bookcases and odd plastic stackable furniture. I also wonder if the fact I had to pee really bad at the time had anything to do with my lack of focus on outside events.

Today, I also did a bit of Father's day shopping in the park and rode the newly-enhanced Jungle Cruise. I certainly think of all the minor touch-ups to the rides in preparation for the park's 50th anniversary, this one is the most successful.

**/****
Dir: Wim Wenders
1991 Color English 158 Min (US VHS Version)
Rated R

I remember being intrigued by this movie back in 1992 when I first saw it with some friends in college. I had remembered the movie being really long, but full of innovative "HD Video" and an interesting look at the not so distant future of 1999. A few months ago, I picked up a used copy of the movie at Amoeba records and decided to re-visit the movie and see how my life perspective would think about it.

The movie follows the travels of Claire who through a series of accidents meets Sam, a mysterious American who seems to be running from something. Claire falls in love with Sam and pursues him around the world to find out his secret. Along the way, they meet bounty hunters, bank robbers, ex lovers, and a whole slew of characters. It turns out Sam has a device to take photos and video which combined with his father's invention will let his blind mother see for the first time. Once the characters reunite in the Australian Outback, they travel down a dark path of inner exploration.

First off: I would love to see this movie in Widescreen and on DVD. The butchering of pan and scan really affects this movie, and as a result makes some of the scenes look unrealistic and cheap. There are rumors that there is a 5 hour director's cut "Trilogy" version of the movie - which I think probably would a lot better.

The film (as I remember it and can imagine - barely from the VHS) is wonderfully shot and full of amazing cinematography in scenes shot in various cities around the world.

As the US release was structured, it was very hodge-podge and jumped around a lot before the characters arrive in the Australian Outback. I suspect because some of the sacrifices in cutting down the movie were in the first half. The pace of the movie slows to a crawl in the Australian scenes. For someone not used to slow paced movie, it can get very boring and dull. I didn't think it was that bad, as I was committed to see how things turned out - someone with no real desire could easily become bored by the whole thing.

There is a lot of discussion of the soundtrack for the movie which is very long and contains new music by all the big stars of 1991. Personally, I felt that the music soundtrack was a bit heavily used and at times it was like "Geez theres another song - gotta squeeze one more song in!". All is not lost, because the score for the movie is actually quite good.

It is worth checking out, but be warned, make sure you are up for a long drama! Personally, I wouldn't mind seeing the five hour version to see if it is actually more engrossing.

Still working fast and furious (well at least for me) on the new layout. Of course with any redesign, scope creep is always a problem. I am trying to limit most of my work to the main page and the Club House section (which includes the Daily Update archives).

After six months, I finally figured out what was wrong with the commenting system. When I migrated to MT 3.x, I forgot to check the whole update guide to the new commenting system. There were a few key changes in the template language that I neglected to do. So it should be fine now.

One thing that is proving difficult is backing up the entire site. It is something that I used to be able to do on a T-1 at my old jobs, but cable modem is a bit slower. Also with the massive amount of photos on the site, it is a bit daunting. In the redesign, I really want to eliminate any dead files that are just filling up server space.

I'm busy at work on the first redesign of the home page in over three and a half years. I am almost done with it, and hopefully it will be gracing the internet soon. The anniversary is fast approaching and I have set up a schedule so that by the time the 28th rolls around, you will start to notice a difference.

Sadly, most of my free time nowadays is in the wee hours of the morning, so if it looks goofy and full of typos, you know why.

Stay tuned!

Next up on the Netflix list was this DVD of the first season of the Clone Wars animated series that was on Cartoon Network. Originally presented as 3-minute shorts before the start of their primetime lineup, on the DVD they have been edited together into an hour-long feature.

I found myself really engrossed into the series and it’s a credit to the writing and the animation. Of course, now I can't wait until Series 2 comes out on DVD, which will tie into Episode 3. The first volume seems more of an outreach of Attack of the Clones, as the relationship between Anakin and Obi-Wan seems to be the same as when we last saw them in that movie.

I liked the style (very Samurai Jack) of the series, but I had to wonder why they went with 2D instead of 3D. Considering the amount of the movies that is rendered in 3D, it doesn't seem too unreasonable that they could have pulled it off. In one of the special features, George Lucas talks about how he wanted more traditional 2D and a more anime feel to the series. Personally, I would like to see what the former Lucasfilm division Pixar could have done.

Regardless it is fun to watch and worth the rent. Now where is Series 2?

***/****
Dir: Alejandro Amenábar
2001 Color English 101 Min
Rated PG-13 for thematic elements and frightening moments.

A creepy little movie that grows on you. I was not sure what to expect from this movie, and I really had no desire to see it. However, there was a line in an AbFab episode (Series 5's 'Huntin', Shootin', and Fishin'') where Eddie wondered if they were in 'The Others'. Daniel told me that I'd never fully get the joke until I saw the movie. He was right, and the joke is better than ever.

As for the movie itself, it really surprised me how much I liked it. The acting and cinematography was all top notch and really drew me into the story. Unfortunately, at the layer switch on the DVD, the disc crapped out so we had to watch the second half a few days later when the replacement DVD from Netflix arrived. It took some of the edge off, but when we started up where we left off, I was sucked back in.

There is a surprise ending in the movie, which I figured out way before the end of the movie, but I won't go into details for those of you who haven't seen it yet.