August 2006 Archives

CBS announced this week that they are going to release a HD Version of the original series of Star Trek. I have mixed feelings about this since I am a big fan of the original crew. I have seen what the new FX could look like with the classic show (In a Mirror, Darkly from Enterprise and Trials and Tribble-ations from DS9) and I think the results were mixed at best (Hello messed up Gorn). I am excited that the Okudas are working on the project since they are well known students of Trek lore. I think the biggest issue will be to see how the live action footage from the 60's will blend with state of the art FX. At least for the first time in 15 years Trek will be back on in syndication.

Star Trek HD premiers September 16th in Syndication - check you local listings. Read te press release

My sister had her baby in the wee hours this morning. That makes niece #3! She was delivered via C-Section, which I can tell you, I NEVER want to witness.

Mom and Gary were in town this weekend and we had a great time driving around the sights of LA. We ventured up to San Gabriel Canyon where my great-grandparents had a cabin when my mom was a kid. When I first moved to LA, we went up there in my Xterra and we found the cabin. Two years later it burned in the big Williams fire. We wanted to go back and see what the area looks like now, but the road was closed down by the OHV area. Seems there was some storm damage a few years ago and it has never been fixed.

We spent the rest of the day driving around Hollywood, Pasadena, and Beverly Hills. We even attempted to drive by Charo's house, but I forgot what the address was. When I got home I looked it up and realized we actually passed it and didn't realize it.

It was good to spend some time with them out on the road. It was a bit like being back in Victoria, Australia driving around Melbourne or out to the Penguin Parade. I joked with them that I have spent more time with them in hotels this year than at either of our houses.

Amazing its clean!
Originally uploaded by Club Josh.

I spent all day Friday cleaning up my apartment. I think it is the best it has looked in years and now the struggle will be to keep it clean until Mom and Gary visit in two weeks. Still on the plate: The office as well as a few minor bedroom issues.

the loneliest bus stop
Originally uploaded by Kris Cohen.

A shot of Kris on a recent vacation to Boulder, CO. I think its very arty and would make a perfect photo to see if the Flickr post to Club Josh is back up and running.

I mentioned in this post how much I loved La Parada de Tettas by the Vengaboys and I even posted a link to the video. Well the video long disappeared from their long disappeared web site. Happily someone has re-posted the video to YouTube which I present below:

For a while I have been wanting to buy new business casual clothes for work since I am now working 2 days a week not in costume. I made it over to South Coast and found a couple of nice outfits and $200 later I walked out. Now, I have been trying to cut down on my spending to try and help pay down some debts and get my financials in order so spending like this is just something that I try not to do.

I felt pretty good about the clothes I bought and decided that I wanted to wear them the first chance I got. So I got all spiffy and went to work and actually got complemented a few times on my outfit. (After someone pointed out that I forgot to remove a sticker on the pants). It was not until I got home that I realized that I had leaned against some paint out at the construction site and basically ruined my new $50 pants. I was so mad. I immediately began looking on the Internet for ways to get this type of industrial paint out of my pants. I wish it was just small spots - then I wouldn't really worry about seeing it - but these were light khakis with a big bright blue spot.

After several remedies failed to remove the spot and other marks, I pretty much resigned myself to the fact that I had just blown $50. In a last ditch effort I took it to my laundry mat and they were going to see what they could do, but they didn't think there was anything. So if they are not successful, I will now have a nice expensive pair of pants to wear to my dad's work.

My apartment is back to normal and I have begun trying to clean things up for Mom's visit in a couple of weeks. I still need to vacuum as well as clean out the tub, and if I am duly inspired tonight, I will try and get some decoration **gasp** on the walls (It has only been 4 years). Then again, I don't want to put anything too nice on the walls since it would probably fall and break.

Club Josh has been without a reliable web stats tool since I converted to the new server, but I finally installed AWStats a few days ago. I haven't had a chance for the log files to start working in the format so I can separate the different servers out of the traffic, but I will hopefully be able to see what exactly is happening with the Charo Site. I know traffic is booming again thanks to the GEICO commercial, and the site is regularly pulling in numbers that I haven't seen since the Sprint PCS commercial and the Surreal Life days.

In other site news, my Flickr no longer publishes to Club Josh and I am not sure why. I know the site itself is running correctly, but for some reason Flickr doesn't like my Movable Type APIs. I will keep investigating them, but in the meantime be sure to keep checking Flickr for the latest photos.

I recently finished captioning the Japan photos and the Hong Kong photos. Now I just need to finish the Australia ones. I am half way done but with over 300 photos it takes a long time. I am hoping to get them finished so I can print a photo book (one of the main reasons I put my travel photos on Flickr) and also to make a calendar for 2007.

There are also some Daily Update things I need to dive into and tweak and it is weird that now I am on Day shifts at work, I actually have time at night to sit down and go through code and fix things.