January 2008 Archives

This past week I have made it through a few DVDs in between training shifts.

First up: Meet the Robinsons
I missed this Disney CGI movie when it came out last year. It was the first time since Chicken Little I missed one in the theaters (heck I even saw Home on the Range in theaters). Maybe its something against CGI. At any rate, I was pleasantly surprised by the movie and it was much better than I expected. Perhaps it is the age-old axiom of low expectations=better movie experience. I recommend you check it out.

Second Up: Paprika
This is a Japanese anime movie that Tara and Brian saw last year and Daniel had been wanting to see for awhile. He finally found it on DVD and we sat down and watched it. Directed by Satoshi Kon from a story by Yasutaka Tsutsui, it is a story of a group of scientists who have invented a device that records your dreams onto a laptop. It reminds me of Until the End of the World with better reception on the laptop. It was truly entertaining and despite being a bit difficult to follow at times, it is well worth the investment. Another recommendation to check out!

Third but not last: Oxygene Live in your Living Room
It is not often that Amazon delivers to me a Jean Michel Jarre video, so naturally I was impatiently roaming the halls at work waiting to get this in the mail. Jarre performs his classic 1977 album "Oxygene" in real time (with some filler here and there). What is really amazing is that he does it with the help of three other musicians and does it on lold 1970s era synthesizers. I was enthralled for the entire 60 minute concert.

Those of you lucky enough to be in Europe, he is performing the same concert live at various venues. His concert at the Royal Albert Hall in London sold out in 2 hours (Ok so he is not Hannah Montana, but that is fast for Jarre). The disc also comes with a 3D version of the concert which I was not able to get to work. I am not sure if it is the video or my eyes or my equipment, but it just looked all misaligned. Many users of the Jarre newsgroup have indicated it is difficult to get it to work. One day, perhaps I will have a big enough room to make it work. As a bonus there is a re-recording of Oxygene (my 3rd such recording) to listen to in the car. For you Jarre fans out there what are you waiting for? Go get it!

I finally have added the Gorn in Europe 2007 gallery to the site. There are now 732 pictures of everyone's favorite globe trotter for all to enjoy. It seemed weird adding the photos to the Gallery site since I already have them up on the Flickr site. I wish there was a better way of integrating the two to avoid redundancy. I could transfer everything over to Flickr, but I think in the case of the Gorn site, I like having it as its own entity and not on another server. I like Flickr for the travel photos since I can easily update them while I am on vacation. So there will be some overlap, but with the Gorn photos I actually take the time to do some photoshop work on the photos as well as re-size them. I was going to just add the raw jpg files, but that would have taken forever!

For the second year in a row, I have put together a calendar on Cafe Press' Club Josh Galleria. I have the same complaints from last year regarding the lack of more customization, but since last year's calendar came out so well I decided to give it another shot. This year, I highlight my trip to Europe. Since the trip was longer than Australia, I had a more difficult time narrowing down the choices.

Here are the monthly photos:
January - Viking Ship Museum, Oslo, Norway
February - Cardiff Millennium Centre, Cardiff, Wales, UK
March - Undredal Brygge, Norway
April - Stirling Castle, Stirling, Scotland, UK
May - Parliament and Big Ben, London, UK
June - Urquhart Castle on Loch Ness, Scotland, UK
July - Steps near the Sacre Couer Funicular, Paris, France
August - Frogner Parken, Oslo, Norway
September - Tower Bridge, London, UK
October - Catacombs, Paris, France
November - Sherwood Forest, Nottinghamshire, UK
December- Tour Eiffel, Paris, France

Pick yours up today!

I am in the process of learning some new areas at the Resort. This week I am spending some quality time out in the Parking Lot learning everything from how to park a car to tolls. All of it has been incredibly eye opening to all the work it takes to make the parking and getting to the park experience seamless. My favorite part has been learning how to ride on the back of the tram and deliver spiels to the guests while loading, riding, and unloading the trams.

For some reason, I get real nervous when I do something the first time, but after having my cheat sheet handy for the first trip, I had it down for the rest of the night. Hopefully as time passes, I will get to hop on a tram to stay in practice. Later this week I will actually tackle driving the tram, and since I am training with someone, there is a chance I will get to spiel.

I guess it taps into every little kids desire to spiel on an attraction at Disneyland, I just got to do it on attractions and Parking. There is a lot more training to come in the next month or so and I will be super busy and working various shifts. It all seems so surreal, and I am having the time of my life.

This weekend I passed this milestone for the first time on a vehicle I have driven. That's right the old 2002 CR-V has finally passed the old 1987 Toyota as my most driven vehicle - for good reason! I love my CR-V despite some of its minor flaws (three interior lights are burned out), but other than that this has been a solid, reliable car. I am up against the wall though, since I either need to finish paying off the car by May or I need to roll this car into another one.

As much as I love the idea of no car payments, I also like the idea of upgrading to a new CR-V. I really like the new design (yay for no spare tire on the back!) and I think I can get one for about the same payments as my current one. I have been looking around at other manufacturers just to see what is out there. I have mild interest in a MINI Cooper, but I am not sure I want to drive a low profile car. Another CR-V highlight is that it has a high seating position for better visibility on the highway. I don't really want a Prius, but I would also like a hybrid vehicle. The only one out there that even remotely interests me is the Saturn Vue Green Line, but I am not sure I would buy a first year product, especially from GM. How about a Hybrid CR-V Honda? I bet you could sell a ton of those.

The longshot could be to get my dream 2002 BMW Z3 roadster, but it is the same issue as with a MINI, I am not sure I want a low profile vehicle especially as a daily driver. Currently, Incentives are not as good as they were at the end of December, but I suspect as we approach the end of January, they will be back. Who knows, maybe at the Detroit Auto Show this month they will unveil something I really like and will wait for (VW Tiguan anyone?).

Charo and Josh
Originally uploaded by Club Josh.

Adding fuel to the fire that Charo is my secret love.

It seems I hardly knew you 2007. I can really say that this year was dominated by three events and that is about it. One was all consuming, one snowballed out of control, and the other is just an amazing surreal thing that I am still trying to put my mind around it.

First up: Nemo!
Never in my life have I worked so hard and been so proud of something I have brought to life. I was so lucky to be part of something that the likes of which will not be seen again in a long time. I was featured in an Annual Passholder newsletter and took home a bunch of swag. It even got me tickets to the World Premiere of Pirates 3. I made connections and friends that I hope will last a long time. When Nemo finally opened I was worried that I would fall back into routinesville, but luckily every day has brought out something interesting and challenging for me to deal with and I think I have learned a lot and grown as a person because of it.

Europe!
This trip was simply amazing. Amazing in its length. Amazing in its price! Despite visiting some new places and old favorites, this really was a great trip that I enjoyed immensely. Three whole weeks off and in Europe comes at a price, but it was well worth it. All the stories and the crazy things that happened - trying to find the hotel in Edinburgh, experiencing Disneyland Paris from an insider point of view, listening to Sara Cox on BBC 1, driving my beloved B150, and most of all having a great time with Daniel. I think we have never spent so much time together without getting on each other's nerves and it is a testament to our friendship.

Charo!
After a year of waiting, my connection with David finally paid off as we we pressed into service by Charo to promote her show in Laughlin. It all culminated in what I think is the beginning of a great relationship. I hope we can continue to stay in touch and help her out whenever she needs us.

And how about 2008? So far it is promising to be a good year from what has been set up in the last few weeks of 2007. The only downside? All that cigarette smoke in Laughlin has caused me to get sick. I hate being sick to start a new year, but hopefully I will recover soon enough and get back in the swing of things. In the meantime thank goodness for Emergen-C and Echinacea!