September 2008 Archives

It is with great sadness that I report the demise of my friend of the last six years - my TiVo. Yesterday, I went to watch my Most Haunted episodes but I noticed the picture on my TV was black. Usually, this means the cable box was off, but the green light was illuminated. I then decided to cycle power to the TiVo, and that was the death knell.

When the power came back on, the lights on the front illuminated solid yellow and orange and that was that. For all the cycling, my poor TiVo would not boot.

Checking online, I discovered the most likely cause is a failed power supply. It is possible to replace the power supply for around 70 bucks in the hopes of rescuing the programs on it, but I am not sure I want to even bother. I am sad to lose the two Most Haunted's on there as well as Charo's appearance on the Today Show from 1994, but replacing the power supply is not a sure fix, and it will take a week or so to get the part, and of course we are in the middle of the new Fall TV season.

So despite these losses, I have to now decide how to replace the TiVo in time to keep recording my favorite shows. I am torn between getting a DVR through Time Warner or getting a new HD TiVo in anticipation of the day I get an HD TV. Perhaps Apple will come to my rescue with an Apple TV DVR?

I have to admit to being in a bit of a late summer funk. Granted, Summer ends tomorrow, but for the last month I have just not been motivated to do much. Work has been challenging the last few weeks with some curve balls here and there. I like to plan ahead and get focused on something, and sometimes things get thrown at you and you just have to hunker down and get to the task at hand. I wish I was much better and running with something that is handed to me at the last minute, but after a few days, the cylinders are starting to fire and I hope that people will take notice.

Pluses are also abounding - I now have a primarily days working schedule with Fridays and Saturdays off for most weeks. I am not sure how long this goodness will last, but I have to be sure to soak it up before I get back to closing weekends.

On travel news, the high price of airfares have really taken a hold of my plans and although I would love to follow Mom and Gary to their Mediterranean cruise, it looks like I will be heading to the Florida Project sometime in November. I haven't been back there since 2003 (amazing considering I have visited all of the other Disney theme parks in the world since then!), and I think once every 5 years is a good cycle for me to go there. 8 years (between 1992 and 2000) was too long and 3 years was too short (2000-2003), so I think now the time is right to go again.

One of the things I am going to do is only go for a week, and then spend another week just working around the apartment and perhaps something more - a distinct contrast to my vacation last year.

Hopefully by Christmas, things will solidify at work, and I will be able to do big things in 2009!

I finally made it to the Apple store to get the composite video cable to connect my iPhone to my TV. Alex gas had one for ages, and now that I have a modern iPod on my iPhone I was really interested to see how it would work. I tested an episode of Kath and Kim that I gave on the iPhone as well as a video I made of Tokyo Disneyland's Winnie the Pooh attraction. Both were a little hard to watch close up but overall they were not bad.

Next, I discovered that if I selected a YouTube video it would also play through the TV - talk about a bonus! I really want to purchase a video from iTunes to see how it compares to my videos. If it is good, then I can watch some of the Doctor Who episodes that are only on iTunes and not DVD.

The new iPhone 2.1 also seems to be better in many ways - the phone is more stable and I do get better 3G reception. Time will tell if it stays this way.

September is a busy month here at Club Josh.

Once again, I have wanted to move out of my apartment for someplace nice. I even went out and looked at buying a condo or even just moving to a nice area like Irvine or some of the new places in Anaheim closer to work. I got really excited over a development in Colony Park in Anaheim, but when push came to shove it is just way too expensive per month.

So my sites turned to getting a new place but I discovered that the price point for an upgraded living space is an additional 300-400 a month. Considering that I am still unsure where I am going to end up at work in the next few months, I think staying put (with a minimal increase in rent) is the wisest course. Part of me thinks that I will just have to put in a 30 days notice in order to force myself to actually get a new place. To be honest, there are several things about my current apartment that I do not really care for - the downstairs neighbor smoking and the increase in graffiti in the neighborhood.

I do have until Friday to sign the new lease or bail, so maybe something will come my way in the nick of time!